Ever Glade
by Nalioop
Summary: Maria is thrown into the glade without warning. How will she cope with being the only girl among 40 guys? Just when she starts getting used to life in the Glade, another girl is sent up! Join Maria as she deals with all of the excitement, drama, and hardship that life at the Glade has to offer.[NewtxOC] [MinhoxOC]! I don't own the Maze Runner. (originally named Forever Glade).
1. Enter Maria: pursued by dog

**AN. So i'm going through the process of updating and revising the pre-existing chapters, so here is the new and improved chapter 1, and stay tuned for more, better written chapters.**

The first thing Maria noticed was the stench. Never before had such a foul stench breached her senses. It smelled like a wet animal that had been rolling in its own shit. Maria was utterly confused as to where she was, a small little room filled with wooden crates. Maria would worry about what was going on later, for now she had to focus on not suffocating from the terrible odor. She couldn't even remember a time she had smelled something so bad… now that Maria thought about it though, she couldn't remember anything at all.

No that's impossible, how could she not remember anything. Maria began to panic, she desperately combed her mind for even a hint of her past, but found nothing. The more she tried to remember, the more she began to freak out. She must have spent five minutes trying to think of her past, but to no avail. She focused on slowing her breathing, panicking wasn't going to get her anywhere. For now she had to focus on getting out this room. For the first time got a good look at her surroundings. Maria came to the conclusion that she was in a small storage room somewhere. There were supply boxes all around her, all marked with the same initials. W.C.K.D.

"Wicked?" Maria said out loud inching closer to the boxes when all the sudden, the room began to move.

Maria concluded the room was moving upward, like an elevator, but wherever she was going, it was taking a long time for her to get there. The room had been traveling upward for at least half an hour before Maria gave up and lost track of time. Maria crouched in a corner of the elevator like room, and hugged her knees to her chest. She was so confused, she had no idea where she was, or where she was going. Maria felt like crying, but no tears came. All she wanted to do was cry, to weep like an infant child, but her eyes stayed dry.

"I'M STUCK IN HERE. LET ME OUT." She called to anybody who could listen. She slammed the side of the wall with her fists.

Maria shook her head, "What if I never get out of here? Does anybody know I'm here?" Out of frustration she grabbed one of the smaller boxes next to her and smashed it against the wall, releasing what looked like several pairs of pants. Pants? Why pants? Why was she locked in a room with nothing but boxes of pants around her. At least she assumed all of the other boxes were filled with pants.

"HELLO. ANYBODY?" She yelled. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!" She shouted. She tried banging on the walls of the metal box, making as much noise as possible.

"WHERE AM I, LET ME OUT!" Maria continued. She stomped on the floor, and continued throwing around boxes, partially to make noise, and partially to get out her anger. Being trapped in a box has a tendency to make one very tense.

Most of the boxes were filled with clothes, one had shirts, another had socks, and a third was full of shoes, oddly all male Maria thought. The final box she smashed open was not filled with clothes, rather it contained five hammers, like the ones used for hammering nails. Maria pick one up and shook it a few time, it wasn't to heavy, maybe she could use it as a weapon, or use it to hammer her way out of the box.

Maria tried futility to hammer the side of the box, but it didn't even make a dent. Her efforts were worthless, the box was indestructible, and on top of that, it still smelled like a sewage dump. If she didn't get out of the box in the next five minutes, she'd either go insane, or actually pass out from the stench.

"LET MEEEEE OUUTTTTTTT!" She screeched, furiously banging the hammer against the wall.

"I SAID LET ME OUT." Once more.

"LET ME Out." Again.

"Let. Me. Out." Her voice dying out.

"let...me...out." She said barely above a whisper. Her shoulders slumped. Out of sheer anger she brought her leg back to kick the small box in her way.

Suddenly Maria heard a whimpering noise coming from inside the box. "A person?" Maria thought" HELLO SOMEBODY" she called out, but no one answered. Instead she heard the last thing she expected to hear.

_"Woof."_

"What the hell?" Maria could have sworn that sounded exactly like a dog, but wouldn't she have noticed if she had been sharing quarters with a dog for half an hour? There wasn't a dog in here with her, there couldn't be. Yet once more she heard the same unbelievable sound.

"W_oof. Woof."_

_"_I'VE GONE INSANE." Maria shouted aloud. "I'VE GONE FUCKING MENTAL." She groaned and cocked her leg to kick the loan box in front of her, but thankfully she took a second to examine the crate first. The crate was different, it was the only one of the lot that was covered in holes, air holes.

"WOOF." Maria almost dropped the hammer in her hand, the sound came from the box in front of her. Something was alive in that box!

Maria wasted no time in _carefully _prying the box open with the opposite end of the hammer. It sprang open to reveal a tiny Jack Russel Terrier, with big warm brown eyes looking up at her sadly. The poor thing was scared to death. She gingerly picked the dog up, he didn't resist at all. Picking the dog up however, she did realize that an accident he had in his box was the cause of the terrible odor.

"Hey there boy" Maria sighed, She was about to talk to a dog, wasn't she. Oh well, at least it wouldn't be the craziest situation she had been in today.

"Do you know where we are?" The dog just cocked his head to the side.

"Yeah me neither" Maria said while yawning. She put Sink down and leaned against the wall, sliding to the floor. Panicking in an elevator sure was tiring, she thought. The dog approached Maria and put his head on her lap. At least he was friendly. She spent a moment wondering whether she should try to yell for help once more, but she knew it was useless. She may as well just sit with the dog on the elevator that was probably bringing her to her inevitable doom. Having the smelly dog so close to her meant that breathing through her nose was not an option. Stinky was the only word to describe this dog. Maria smiled from the idea she just got.

"I think I oughtta call you Stink," she said while petting the dog.

The dog chuffed contently, he began to lick her hand.

"I'll take that as a yes"

The peaceful moment was interrupted by the elevator screeching to a halt, and a white hot light invading Maria's vision.

"EY EVERYBODY, COME CHECK OUT THE NEW GREEN BEAN!"

* * *

"Who's the poor shuck this month?

"I bet he'll be a slopper"

"The dumb shanks probably kluncked his pants by now"

Shuck? Slopper? What were these words, Maria was more confused than she was 30 minutes ago. Where was she and why were people talking like this, she may have had no memory, but she could tell that those words weren't proper English.

"OK EVERYBODY SHUT THE HELL UP" a powerful voice shouted from above. About 40 boys were standing over Maria, all in their teens. All of their faces smeared with varying degrees of filth.

Maria still hadn't come out of her corner, she sat up against the wall, clutching onto her new friend Stink with one arm, and grasping the hammer in the other hand.

"Alright Newt go down there and get the dumb shank. Greenie seems to scared to introduce himself." Said the dark skinned boy with the commanding voice. The next thing Maria knew, a boy about her age jumped into the box. He landed with a thud.

"Smells like klunk down here" Said the boy. The boy, Newt she figured, was tall, with a skinny frame although he seemed to be fairly muscular. On his head was a crop of tussled dirty blonde hair, and his features though unusual, were definitely not unattractive.

"Alright Greenie you can show yourself, I'm not gonna hurt ya" Newt said, inching closer to Maria's corner, yet to notice that she was female. Maria decided to swallow her fear, and show herself. She put down Stink, and stood up, raising the hammer.

"Let. me. out" She growled to the strange boy in front of her, emerging from her hiding place.

Newt's jaw dropped open "bloody hell you're a girl!" Newt gasped. "EY ALBY IT'S A GIRL, THEY SENT UP A BLOODY GIRL" he shouted to the others.

Silence overcame the crowd above, their faces full of disbelief.

"You're full of shit Newt."

"He's kidding guys."

"No he isn't! Look at her hair!"

"I call dibs."

"EVERYBODY BE QUIET" shouted the strong voice again. This guy had to be the leader, Maria assumed.

"What are you waiting for Newt, Bring her up" The leader spoke.


	2. GLADE to meet you!

Getting out of the box proved to be a rather awkward affair. At first Alby was just going to yank her up by arm, but Newt wouldn't allow that.

"Are you mental Alby, you can't just yank a lady out of a box!"

"Well I don't see you coming up with a better idea Mr. Manners." Alby retorted. Newt glared at his superior. "Alright you shank just wait a bloody second."

"What's going on?" Maria questioned, still cautious of the situation. She gripped the hammer a little tighter. Who were these guys trying to take her out of the box? Could she even trust them?

"We'll explain later... greenie" Newt paused, unsure if the typical glader slang applied to girls. "Right now we got to get you out of the box." Maria was unsure, but she cooperated. They ended up having Newt hoist her up by what can only be described as something slightly reminiscent of an extremely awkward cheer routine.

Once they were both out Maria sprang up in an alert position. She looked back into the box that brought her to this mysterious place, where she saw Stink looking up at her quizzically.

"Wait! What about Stink!" Maria turned to the crowd of boys, hoping one of them would retrieve her dog.

"What's a stink?" Said one glader.

"Oh great the new greenie's a crazy" groaned another. Maria glared, she didn't appreciate being made fun of.

"No. I mean my dog- Stink." Maria said with an annoyed tone.

"What is she going on about?" Began Alby, but once he looked into the box, he too saw the terrier staring up at him. "Well shuck. The greenie brought a dog with her. "

"Newt go fetch the mutt." Alby commanded

"Why do I have to do everything around here" muttered Newt. He quickly brought up the dog who ran up to Maria. She picked him up with one hand and pointed the hammer at the group in front of her, remembering that she was supposed to be defensive right now. For all she knew the boys around her were cannibals or something.

"NOW TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, OR ELSE I'LL USE THIS." She threatened.

"Calm down girlie, nobody here wants to hurt you, we've all been through this" Alby said without any sympathy.

"Don't give me that shit, tell me what's going on. Why can't I remember anything?" She continued.

"We'll explain that in a minute-"

"I was in that box for practically an hour, YOU PUT ME THERE. TELL ME WHY." She screamed.

She heard a voice from the crowd speak, "Somebody calm this shucking girl down!" Maria scowled, still seething with anger. She gently placed Stink down, and in one step forward she had driven the butt of the hammer right into the commenters shoulder.

"AGH WHY THE SHUCK DID YOU DO THAT" He cried, clutching on to his shoulder.

"THE NEXT ONES GOING RIGHT TO THE TESTICLES IF I DON'T GET SOME FUCKING ANSWERS. RIGHT. NOW!" Maria threatened once more. All of the guys visibly winced at the threat.

"Alby tell her what she wants, the greenie's gonna shucking neuter me!" Winced the injured boy.

"Are all girls like this? Cause if so, they're not as great as I thought they were." Said another voice from the crowd. Maria lifted the hammer again.

Make one more move with the hammer greenie, and you get a night in the slammer, calm down and drop your weapon." Alby reasoned.

"You think you can tell me what to do, first you kidnap me and now what? Are you going to kill me? Enslave me?" Maria spat, pointing her hammer in accusation at the leader. Behind her a large, built boy emerged from the crowd.

"Alby should I handle this?" The brutish boy asked. Alby shook his head.

"Not yet Bill, but take the hammer, the tool belongs to us anyway." Alby demanded. Before Maria could do anything the weapon was yanked from her hands.

"Now that you're a bit more stable, I'll tell ya what I can." Alby told her. He then began an incredibly rehearsed speech saying that she was not kidnapped by them, where they were was called The Glade, that nobody had any memories, and that they were stuck with no way out. Maria listened carefully, but her face kept the same look of resentment towards the crowd.

"You however, are the first girl we've ever got… Do you remember your name?" Alby finished with a curious expression.

"Maria." She grumbled, surprised that she was even able to recite her own name. "It's Maria." She announced with a little more enthusiasm.

"Nice to meet ya Maria. Name's Alby." Alby tried to shake her hand, but she rejected, instead she crossed her arms over her chest and glared.

The whole time Alby was talking to her, all of the other gladers were looking at her in awe. Like Maria was the first girl they had ever seen- which I guess in this case was true. All of the attention was weirding Maria out, and I guess Newt could see it on her face because he snapped at all the other gladers.

"ALL RIGHT GENTLEMEN MOVE ALONG, WE GET IT SHE'S A GIRL, NOW GO BACK TO WORK YOU BUNCH A SHANKS! AND IF ANY OF YOU PERVERTED SHUCKS LAY A FINGER ON THE GREENIE YOU'LL BE GETTING THE SLAMMER" He yelled. Maria turned a bright shade of crimson at his words, but was thankful for the gesture.

Alby's stared at Maria, not in a particularly menacing way, but like he was analyzing her. Maria took a step back.

"Can somebody please tell me how I got here" she said with a waiver in her voice, the first sign of weakness she let show. Everything had happened so fast, and she was feeling so many emotions at once. But now was not the time to cry. Not in front of these strangers.

"Tomorrow- on the tour, you'll learn everything in good time." Alby said. "Newt, get the girl some supplies, and find her a place to sleep tonight. We'll have a gathering regarding her tomorrow." Alby finished, suddenly, to Maria's dismay, he grabbed Stink off the ground and handed him to a glader.

"Hey Chuck, go give this dog a bath. He smells like chicken clunk." Stink whimpered in protest, but Chuck carried him away, separating Maria from the only creature she had come to trust so far in the glade. Alby walked away too, he definitely had a lot on his mind right now.

Newt and Maria were now the only two left near the box, everyone else had dispersed to their appropriate places. Maria looked all around her, she saw fields of vegetables, animal pens, dense forest, and a wooden shack that looked rather precariously built. But most of all, she noticed the walls. Towering walls, covered in ivy. All around her for as far as the eye could see. Encasing "the glade" in a perfect box. "How did I get here?" Maria said with tears beginning to well in her eyes. "Why am I here?" A single tear rolled down her cheek. Just great, now she had to turn all emotional all of the sudden. All of the emotions of the day had finally caught up to her, and all Maria wanted to do was curl up into the fetal position and cry her eyes out. She walked up to the nearest tree and propped herself against it, tucking her knees to her chest, Maria realized how pathetic and vulnerable she must have looked, but she found comfort in the position, and sat in silence, thankful that not many guys had stuck around to see her like this.

Newt gave her a moment to collect her thoughts before he walked over to her, this wasn't the first time he had to deal with a sensitive greenie, but she was the first girl. When he first layed eyes on her in the box, something clicked in the back of his mind, like a wave of déjà vu washed over him. Newt dismissed his confusing thoughts to focus on the sniveling girl in front of him.

"Need a hand?" He asked sympathetically. Maria shook her head and rather stood up on her own brushing herself off, she was done crying for the day, and it was time to be serious. She stood defensively in front of Newt.

"Why am I here? Why am I the only girl?" She asked, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"Well if I knew why we were all here things would be a lot simpler, wouldn't it? And as to why the creators sent up a bloody girl… I haven't got a clue. I'm not complaining though." He smirked.

Maria, let her expression soften, the boy's smile was infectious it seemed, because she seemed so much less angry.

"That's not funny." Maria rolled her eyes.

Newt shrugged, "Sorry." He smirked again. "Where are my manors, I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Newt." He gave a mock bow.

"I figured…What kind of name is Newt anyway."

"It's my name." Newt remarked with an overtly proud expression. Maria rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help the smile that escaped her lips.

"Good to know you're capable of smiling." Newt grinned. Maria huffed and crossed her arms again.

"I want my hammer back." She muttered.

Newt laughed uncomfortably, "Well I'm not giving you another hammer, but I can get you some supplies." He offered. Maria glanced up, and reluctantly nodded her head.

"Fine" She slumped, and followed Newt to the supply hut.


	3. whatsa gal gotta do to get a tampon here

"Well here it is, the supply room." Newt said, gesturing with his arms. The supply room was a really just a shack filled to the brim with W.C.K.D. boxes. Maria could see shelves of clothes, mismatched pots and pans, and everything in between.

"Let's start you off with the basics" Newt said while rubbing his hands together. "Here's a bedroll, some toiletries and what not, a little multi-tool for emergencies..." With every object Newt listed, he placed it in Maria's arms.

"Ummm Newt?" Maria chided.

"Yeah?"

"Can I have a little help here." Newt hadn't realized it, but Maria's arms were full of supplies that she clearly couldn't carry all by herself.

"Well, where are my manners greenie? Here are let me grab that." Newt took the bed roll from her arms. "Better?"

Maria smiled, this was the first act of kindness anyone had showed her in the Glade. She was still shocked though, Newt hadn't answered any of her questions. Like why they never left the Glade? Or if her memories would ever come back? She no longer felt like crying, but she sure did feel like panicking. Maybe the guys were just pretending to be hospitable to her so they could kill her, she thought. Something told her that theory wasn't right, the gladers seemed too stupid to pull off a stunt like that. Maria huffed, of course she would be the only girl among all of these guys.

Suddenly Maria had a thought. The supply room probably didn't have things for girls. The Glade's population was exclusively male, there wasn't going to be any clothes that would fit her, let alone any bras or tampons. Maria was embarrassed to have to ask Newt, but idling wasn't going to get her anywhere. She was more annoyed then anything about being the only girl.

"Newt there wouldn't happen to be any feminine products hmm?" She asked impatiently.

"What do you mean feminine nee-OH Uhh" Newts eyebrows shot straight up and his face turned a multitude of red shades. "Yeah no I don't believe we have any of those...things" his voice cracked when he spoke.

Maria couldn't help but chuckle at his discomfort. Newt's embarrassment quickly went away when she laughed. "Oh shut up" he hissed. His words showed resentment, but Maria could tell he was trying not to laugh too, and he helplessly broke out in a smile.

"Aw you're not so tough Newt, I guess all it takes is a couple tampons to bring you to your knees" Maria joked. Newt blushed again but this time he laughed.

"Well excuse us for never having any bloody females here, bunch of guys wouldn't have much use for tampons anyway, love."

"What was that" Maria wasn't sure she heard right. Did he just call her…? Love?

Newt cleared his throat- "I didn't say anything greenie just shut up and grab your things." Newt said, quickly changing the subject. Newt didn't know why he had just called her that, it just seemed so natural. He didn't mean for it to come off as affectionate, it just seemed like the proper thing to refer to a girl as. Newt shook his head, lost in thought.

Suddenly, the makeshift door to the shack opened, and in walked a Glader lugging two large W.C.K.D crates.

"Hey Len, whatcha got there?" Newt greeted. He obviously knew the boy.

"These were the crates that came up in the box with the new greenie…" Len stopped. "Well I'll be damned. The creators finally got the sense to send a chick up" Len said, wiggling his eyebrows at Maria. Maria rolled her eyes, this Len guy was a creep. He was clearly giving Maria a once over with his eyes. Maria glared at him, wishing she still had her hammer.

"I'm Len by the way, and if you ever need _anything_don't hesitate to ask greenie, I will happily provide you with some company" Len winked at Maria, who had to resist the urge to throw up from the grossness of the gesture.

"Ok that's enough Lenny now scram, you're freaking Maria out." Newt said, growing increasingly annoyed with the persistent glader in front of him. Newt had never liked Len at all, he always had to make stupid comments, and was always trying to pick fights around the Glade. Len himself used to be a runner, but Minho got him demoted after Len had _allegedly _abandoned Ben when he was stung by the griever. Minho wanted nothing more for Len to get banished, but Alby didn't have any proof, so instead they revoked Len's running privileges and made him a Slopper instead. Nobody around the Glade associated themselves with him, but he continued to be his same annoying self.

"Is that true Maria" Len said, staring at a place that certainly wasn't Maria's eyes.

Maria nodded. "Go away creep" She spat. Len clearly wasn't intimidated by her, he winked and without another word, left the supply room.

"I think I'm gonna throw up" Maria said, thankful that Len was gone.

"Yeah Len's a bloody asshole sometimes, it'd be best if you just avoided him." Newt said, glaring angrily at the direction Len came from. "Anyway let's take a look at what arrived in those crates, it could be useful."

Newt pried open the crates to reveal what was inside. One of the crates appeared to have medicine, while the other had a rather large backpack in it. Newt opened the backpack, and immediately his face turned beet red.

"It's for you" he squeaked. Maria looked at him funny and grabbed the backpack. Sure enough the first thing she saw when she opened it was a pair of panties. She smiled, the bag must have had everything she needed. She slung it over her shoulder and teased Newt.

"What's wrong Newt afraid of a little underwear?" She teased.

"Shut up greenie, you oughta go to bed right now."

Maria paused. "So where will I be sleeping tonight, Newt?" Maria asked, she hoped that it wouldn't be one communal sleeping arrangement, because she definitely wasn't comfortable with that, especially if there were more guys like Len around the Glade.

"Is there a chance I'll have my own room?" She asked. Newt thought for a moment, only keepers got their own room in the homestead, but he couldn't let Maria sleep in the open with everyone else. He saw the way Len was looking at her, and Newt was NOT gonna allow him anywhere near Maria. She was his responsibility for now, and he had to keep her safe.

"Tell ya what greenie, you can room with me tonight, how that sound?"

Maria winced. "In the same room?"

Newt ran his hand through is hair. "We'll figure that out when we get there." Newt told her.

Maria sighed, at least bunking with Newt was better than sleeping out in the open. "OK Newt lead the way."

thanks**for reading this far into my story guys . as u may know this is my first story, and i would really appreciate some feed back or suggestions. Im pretty new at this and i'm really just making up the chapters as i go along, so i guess thinking of a solid story line wouldnt hurt. let me know if u want to see more of a certain character, or i could incorperate some**_**Male**_**Oc's into my story if you leave ur oc in the comments, i'll plug them in. I know authors notes are fucking annoying but whatever i just want to say now that there will be some language and romantic themes throughout the story, maybe even a little bit of ;) if you know what i mean. anyway thanks for reading so far, i plan on this being a looong story**


	4. t- shirt

Newt's room was a lot bigger than Maria expected, I guess that was one of the perks of being second in command. Even though Newt's room was quite spacey, the room was pretty empty. There was a bed pushed up against the back wall of the room, next to the bed was a small lantern, and in the far corner of the room there was a heap of clothes and other personal belongings that belonged to Newt. Other than that the walls were bare, and windowless.

Newt rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "It's not much, but it's all I got… you can take the bed and I guess I'll just sleep outside for tonight." Newt told Maria. She frowned at that plan. Maria didn't want him to go, she enjoyed the company and she didn't really want to be alone on her first night in the glade.

"Wait don't go-" She stopped before she completely embarrassed herself, she wasn't about to grovel for Newt to stay, was she? "I mean you shouldn't have to sleep outside. That's what I meant to say" Maria continued with a nervous laugh. "You can have the bed, and I'll just sleep on the floor. It's fine." Maria wasn't sure why she wanted Newt to stay so bad, but she stood by what she said, waiting for Newt to reply.

"I'm not sure Alby would approve of that…" Newt said, and then mentally scolded himself

"You idiot, a bloody girl wants to sleep in the same room as you and your too busy worrying about what Alby will say?" Newt thought to himself. The greenie was his responsibility anyway, so it would be best to stay by her side, and by the looks of it, the greenie didn't want him to go. Newt was relieved, he really didn't want to sleep outside anyway.

"Alright fine I'll stay, but I'm not gonna let you sleep on the floor, you get the bed tonight." Before Maria had the chance to protest, Newt had already rolled out the sleeping bag and sat on top of it cross legged. He looked up at Maria and grinned. Maria simply rolled her eyes and dejectedly sat on the bed.

A few moments of silence passed when all off the sudden there was knock at the door. Newt opened it to reveal a chubby young glader holding Stink in his arms.

"Hey Newt do you know where I can find the girl?" Chuck said, not noticing that Maria was in the room. "I've got her dog here, and I figured I ought to return him." At that time Chuck finally looked up, realizing she had been in the room the whole time.

"Newt, what's the Greenie doing in your room?" Chuck asked.

"Umm- Maria's actually gonna be sleeping in here tonight." Newt responded. Chuck looked at Maria and then Newt, he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Get your head out of the Gutter Chuck, it's not like that." Newt glared at the glader, clearly annoyed with him now.

With that Chuck dropped Stink off at the door and walked away, muttering something about Newt being a shank.

Maria was relieved to have Stink back, she picked him up and held him tight against her, glad to have at least one friend in this weird place, even if he was just a dog. Newt cleared his throat, getting Maria's attention.

"Sorry to interrupt your little love fest with the dog, but it's getting late, and it's time for lights out." He said while leaning down on his sleeping bag, shifting to get comfortable. "First night's always the worst." He told her before shutting his eyes.

Newt fell asleep almost immediately, snoring as soon as his head hit the pillow. Stink took his position at the foot of the bed, while Maria tried to get comfortable. She knew it would be impossible though. How could she go to sleep in such a foreign place, with hardly any of her questions answered?

Maria considered escaping from the room, and possible answering some questions on her own, but she knew she would get caught. She was one girl against more than 40 boys. She was so angry at herself for how vulnerable she was acting. Was she really just going to accept that she had been kidnapped and thrown into a clearing with a bunch of guys? Maria didn't really have a choice, but there had to be something she could do to better her situation.

She wondered if she should just make a run for it, and find her own way back home, but she instantly dismissed that idea. For starters, she had no idea where home was, or if she even had a home to go to, and how would she get there, it probably wasn't within walking distance. She furled her brow in attempt to come up with any better ideas, but she couldn't think of anything. She slumped down in the bed out of frustration.

She thought about her surroundings. She was in a warm bed, in a semi- stable house. There were certainly worse places she could have been abducted to. At least here she was given shelter, and the promise of food.

She thought once more if running was worth it, but who was she kidding? She couldn't last a day surviving on her own. What was she gonna do? Hammer her way to safety? Not a chance. Her best bet on survival would be to stick with the guys who could very well be her kidnappers. She just needed them for her own survival, and nothing else.

Maria shifted in the bed, desperate for sleep; however her eyes remained open. She couldn't sleep when what she was wearing was so restricting. The clothes she was wearing were anything but comfortable sleeping clothes.

The clothes she was sent up in were a pair of tight fitting jeans, and a blue button down shirt, not the most ideal pajamas. Maria checked in the backpack of supplies for any possible sleeping clothes, but all she found were clothes similar to the ones she had on. She needed something loose fitting to wear, not tight. Maria thought about just sleeping in her bra and panties, but she decided against it considering there was a boy no more than 10 feet away from her. Maria wasn't sure what she would do when suddenly she spotted Newt's clothes at the far corner of the room. She got an idea, a dumb one, but an idea nonetheless. She could probably borrow a t-shirt from him without him noticing. She would sleep in it and then return it in the morning before he woke up, it was an almost perfect plan!

She tip-toed over to the corner and picked up a random shirt. Receding quickly back to her side of the room. Maria made sure that Newt was still asleep before she changed, and hastily got to undressing.

She had stripped down to her underwear when she heard a voice coming from the other side of the room.

"Bloody hell girlie I wasn't aware I'd be getting a strip-tease this late at night" Newt said with a stupid grin plastered across his face. This may as well have been the best day of his life at the Glade. He hated to stare, because he knew it wasn't polite, but _come on_, he thought, there was literally a half-naked girl in his room! Wouldn't every teenage boy react the same.

Maria quickly scrambled into the T-shirt. "Pervert" she muttered at Newt, her cheeks were burning from the embarrassment.

"Is that my shirt?" Newt said bewildered. Newt couldn't help but stare, he hadn't really been able to describe the girl until now, and seeing her in nothing but his T-shirt was like a slap in the face to Newt, the girl was stunning. She was probably 5'5, nearly a head shorter than Newt, with medium length reddish- brown hair. Freckles were scattered across her skin like stars in the sky, and her eyes, large and bright, were the most breathtaking color Newt had ever seen, a beautiful blue-green that seemed to stand out even more with her wearing Newt's blue shirt. The shirt stopped mid- thigh on her, revealing legs that seemed to go on forever. How had he failed to notice this girls features? He must have been too preoccupied with getting her situated to notice. Newt had to stop himself from staring for too long. But Maria's voice brought Newt's mind out of the gutter.

"I hope you don't mind me borrowing it… I just needed something comfy to sleep in." Maria said. She noticed Newt staring at her very intensely, she wondered if she had done something to anger him. "Is it Ok with you?" Newt nodded his head like a maniac, "Yeah its fine, believe me." Newt smiled wide again "It looks good on you."

Maria blushed once more, and hurriedly wrapped herself with a blanket for decency. "Pretend this never happened." She hissed. There Maria was, trying not to look like a vulnerable girl, when she had literally just stripped for one of the guys. Maria scolded herself for being so stupid.

"Goodnight Newt." She muttered under her breath.

"Good night love." Newt said, turning over in his sleeping bag.

"There he goes again." Maria thought, "Calling me love." Maria let out a yawn, she guessed it had to be about midnight by now. She knew she needed to head to sleep. Her first day in the glade hadn't been too bad, but she still had a lot of questions left to be answered.

She had a memory-less, dreamless sleep that night


	5. b-b-b-b-bonfire

Maria woke up late the next morning, she would have slept in later however Stink had other plans, and she awoke to her face being licked by the scruffy dog. Maria audibly groaned and pushed the dog off of her face, she sat up and looked at her surroundings, seeing the same nearly empty room from the night before. She frowned. Yesterday hadn't been a dream. She really was in some strange glade amongst 40 boys without any memories. She wondered if her family would be looking for her, did she even have a family? Maria found her lack of memories to be the most annoying thing about her predicament.

Maria looked over to the floor, expecting to see Newt, but instead saw an empty sleeping bag. Maria assumed that he had already began his day, and was out doing his duties as second in command. She groaned and stood up, now was as good a time as ever to start her day.

What she really wanted was a nice long shower. She felt filthy and she figured she probably smelled bad to boot. Hopefully, she thought, the guys actually showered in the glade.

Maria got changed for the day, she would search for a shower later. A thermometer propped on the wall told Maria that the day was warm, nearly 90 degree's, and she got changed accordingly. She wore a pair of tan shorts that were a little too short for her liking, as well as a plum colored tank top. She threw on a pair of combat boots and put her hair in a messy side braid. She wished that Newt's room had a mirror, so she at least knew what she looked like. All Maria knew about her appearance was that her hair was a dingy red color and that her nails were caked with dirt.

"Come on stink." she muttered to the dog who had been waiting patiently in the corner, "we got a long day ahead of us." She braced herself for the day and walked out the door.

Maria hoped that she could have just walked out of the homestead undetected on her quest for the showers, but sadly that was not the case. At the end of the hallway stood a built boy with rather peculiar features, she couldn't help but stare at his eyebrows that seemed to portray every human emotion at the same exact time.

"Well Shuck." the boy said walking over to Maria. "You must be the she-shank." He greeted, sticking his hand out for her to shake. "The name's Gally, Keeper of the builders."

She-Shank? Maria thought, she disregarded the boys comment and shook his hand. "My name's Maria" she corrected.

"Nice to meet ya girlie!" Gally said. Honestly Maria, she assumed that judging by his facial expression that he would be the rude type, but so far she had been proven wrong.

"Well I'm off to the kitchens to grab some breakfast, you coming?" He asked. Maria thought for a second, she really needed to take that shower, but her stomach won over her need to be clean.

"Sure, but I don't know where to go." she agreed, she realized she hadn't had anything to eat yet in the glade, and just now realized how hungry she was.

"Alright green bean follow me then." Gally said, as he walked out of the homestead and into the glade. All of the boys were already up and eating breakfast, And as soon as Maria set foot in the dining pavilion everybody stopped talking and turned to look at her. It's a strange feeling, having 40 boys all turn and look at you at the same time, and Maria wanted nothing more than to curl into a little ball of uncomfortableness, but she put on a poker face and walked up to the line for food, walking with confidence.

One of the boys in the crowd whistled in approval, while a few others made various cat calls.

"The greenie's pretty hot!" whispered a glader, just loud enough for Maria to hear.

"Look at those legs!" Said another.

Maria ignored them, staring straight ahead in line. She hoped to blend in to the crowd, but that's pretty difficult when you're the only girl. As soon as she stepped foot in the queue, Maria was pushed to the front of the line.

"Ladies first!" Urged the boys. Maria was annoyed at her special treatment. They were making such a big deal out of her being there. She rolled her eyes. "You don't have to treat me differently you know." She reluctantly took a plate of food from the chef.

"These shucks bothering you?" said the cook, as he handed Maria her food, he introduced himself as Frypan.

"A little." Maria murmured.

"You gotta forgive them, these shanks have no idea how to act a lady, and they'll wise up in day or two." The cook said with a vague southern accent.

Maria smiled at the chef's kindness, and turned around. The boys were all sitting at different tables, similar to a high school cafeteria. "Great where am I supposed to sit?" she thought. When, to her relief she heard a familiar voice.

"Oi Maria, over here!" Newt yelled, gesturing for her to sit next to him. He was sitting at a table with 10 or so others.

She walked over to his table and sat down herself down next to Newt. She didn't look up though, she just stared down at the dilapidated pancakes on her plate, feeling particularly awkward among the new group of guys at the table.

"So this is the girl you shared a bed with last night?" said one of the boys sitting next to Newt. Maria glared at him and opened her mouth to say something but Newt beat her to it.

"Shut your hole Winston we didn't share a bloody bed."

"Well Chuck said that-"

Newt cut him off "I let Maria take my bed so she wouldn't have to sleep with the bloody lot of pervs outside."

That shut Winston up, and the rest of Newt's table sat in silence. Alby, who was sitting across from Newt cleared his throat and addressed Maria.

"Well Greenie, we may as well introduce you to some of the guys round here" he began. "So this is the Keeper's table...which I guess you're sitting at for some reason" he said while glaring at Newt.

Newt just shrugged, "I was being nice" he said.

"Anyway I'll just go through our names" continued Alby. He pointed out Gally, the keeper of the builders whom she met earlier that day, Winston, the keeper of the slicers who had made the rude comment, Zart, the keeper of the track-hoes, Bill, the keeper of the baggers, Clint, the keeper of the med-jacks, and he ended on Minho, the keeper of the runners."And you've met Newt by now." Alby finished.

Maria didn't know what any of their job titles meant, "What the hell is a track-hoe?" she kept thinking, but she nodded along anyway acting like she understood. "So today you're goin on the tour, I'm not gonna be able to give it since I gotta deal with poor Ben over in the med hut." Alby told her.

Suddenly Alby flashed a devious smile, he knew that any of the shanks he called gladers would kill for an opportunity to be with the girl. He yelled out loud enough for all of the gladers near bye to hear. "HEY which one of you shanks wants to give the greenie the tour?" he yelled out. Every gladers hand shot up, all of the boys eager for the opportunity to spend time with a girl, even a couple of the keepers raised their hands.

"I'll do it!"

"No I will!"

"Hey I already called dibs on the girl."

Maria groaned and laid her head on the table. "You guys are so annoying" she muttered. Alby chuckled, he had expected this reaction out of the gladers.

"Minho put your hand down" Alby snapped. "You don't have time to give a tour, you have a maze to run" Minho shrugged and grinned.

"Forgive me for wanting to spend a little quality time with the new green bean" he said while looking at Maria, and shot her an overtly flirtatious look. Maria just glared at him.

"Can you stop guys stop signaling me out. Seriously you guys are the worst, it's not my fault you all have never seen a girl before." Mara bared, putting as much hate in her words as possible.

"Aw look how cute she is when she's mad." Winston snickered.

"She looks about as intimidating as a cotton ball." Zart added.

"That's it!" Maria huffed, fed up with the teasing, she was really starting to hate this Winston guy. She grabbed two ripe oranges from the center of the table and chucked the fruit right at Winston and Zart's heads.

"OH WHAT THE HELL!" shouted Winston, clutching onto his nose, which had begun to bleed.

The whole table roared with laughter, Minho looked like he was about to cry from laughing so hard. While Newt and the others hooted and pounded the table with their fists.

Winston stood up, still holding his nose, and stormed off angrily.

"I should probably go make sure his nose isn't broken." Chuckled Clint, He stood up and left the table in pursuit for Winston. Zart on the other hand, was laughing along with everyone else, although he was holding the side of his face gingerly.

"I deserved that." He said putting his hands in the air in surrender. Maria smiled slightly, it looked like she had finally gotten some respect around the glade.

The laughter finally died after Alby several minutes of trying to quiet everyone. "You can't go throwing stuff at other gladers greenie." Alby said to Maria, but he didn't really look angry. "Winston kind of deserved it, but rules are rules, and you can't harm other gladers. This is your warning." Alby told her sternly.

"Aw lighten up Alby, the new greenies hilarious." Gally said, peeling the orange Maria had used to hit Winston with, Gally wasn't the type to waste food.

Newt laughed, "Gally's right, she's gonna fit in great here." Newt chimed while patting Maria's shoulder. "I'll give her the tour, seeing as I'm second in command here." Minho was about to say something in protest when Alby cut him off.

"Minho don't you have a maze to run?" Minho rolled his eyes,

"Hey I run that Maze every day, you shucks should be worshipping me for being the only shank tryna get us out of this klunker… Whatever, I'm out." Minho said dramatically and left for the maze."

"Minho's our resident sass queen here at the glade, he's a little dramatic sometimes" Newt informed Maria.

"You're telling me." mumbled Alby.

"Well we better start on this tour now if we want to be done in time for the bonfire." Newt said standing up.

"What Bonfire?" Maria asked.

Gally answered "We have one every time we get a new greenie, and we all agreed that the bonfire party's gonna be big this month in honor of the first girl."

Maria was about to say something against that, she didn't want to be treated any differently because she was a girl, but Newt grabbed her arm and quickly dragged her to the center of the glade to begin the tour.

* * *

Maria was incredibly overwhelmed by the tour, Newt had told her a new vocabulary word every minute. Dead head, slicer, klunk, slopper, bagger? Newt told her the definition of each glader words, and Maria couldn't imagine how she was going to remember any of them. What Maria was most surprised by the fact that the walls surrounding her formed an elaborate maze? "So that's where Minho is running?" she asked Newt.

"Yeah, as a runner, Minho runs the maze almost every day, memorizing it. It changes every day… He usually has Ben to run with him, and one other, but Ben had a little run in with a griever."

"...A griever?"

"There these robotic slug creatures that roam the maze at night. They inject you with a poison, and unless you can get the cure in time...you die" Newt said looking down at the ground.

"Oh…" Maria said silently horrified by the thought of a griever. She decided to change the subject.

"So Minho must be pretty in shape if he runs the maze all day…" She stated, definitely not thinking about Minho's biceps.

Newt chuckled and shook his head, "Minho may be stronger than me but he's got a shuck face compared to mine, I mean just look at these guns." Newt grinned flexing his bicep, and raising a smug eyebrow at Maria.

Maria looked away and tried to hold back a smile. "No you look like a...like a shuck." Maria said, trying out her first glader word.

Newt laughed, "I feel like I'd be more insulted if you actually used that word correctly." He said flatly.

"Whatever." Maria muttered. It looked like their tour was coming to a close, seeing as they were in the same place as where they started. Which for some reason, she wasn't quite sure why, she felt sad.

"Well that's the glade." newt said rubbing the back of his head. "Any questions?"

Maria thought for a second. Now seemed like the perfect time to take her shower actually. "Well, if you wouldn't mind pointing out the bathrooms to me, I'd like to go take a shower." Maria told Newt. Newt's eyebrows raised slightly, he hadn't considered the fact that Maria would have to share a bathroom with 40 guys.

"Well the bathrooms are next to the homestead… but we uh...we kind of have a very communal thing going on, there's not a lot of privacy in the glade." Newt said sheepishly. "I'll take you over there and we can figure something out."

* * *

The bathroom was the grossest thing in the glade so far. 40 boys sharing 4 toilets, 2 urinals, and 3 showers, all in the same open room. Maria noticed a couple slabs of wood placed here and there for the sake of dignity, but other than that, everything was open. The urinals were placed at the far side of the bathhouse, and a boy was clearly doing his err… business, with his back to Maria. She quickly averted her eyes. Newt could see the discomfort in Maria's expression and spoke up.

"Sorry we don't have a proper ladies room here. I uhh I hope you don't mind sharing with 40 or so gladers."

Maria winced, the situation was not ideal, but it would have to do. "I'll be fine… can you just guard the door and make sure nobody comes in." She asked. She trusted Newt enough to do so, considering they had shared a room the night before, and he didn't behave like a total asshole.

"Of course." He nodded. And with that he ordered the boy at the urinal to get out, and took his position at the door. "If you need anything just yell for me." he said to Maria on the other side of the door.

Maria hesitantly began the process of her shower, she waited a few minutes to take her clothes off to make sure nobody barged in, and slowly, she stripped. The shower was a nightmare, and not at all as relaxing as she hoped it would be. The temperature was an inconsistent mix of freezing and lukewarm, the soap she used was gritty and rough against her skin, and she didn't even have anything to wash her hair with. She was able to steal a razor that was sitting on a sink counter in order to shave her legs and armpit, so she was grateful for that hygienic aspect.

Newt on the other side of the wall was quietly at war with himself. The English gentleman side of him was telling him to stay still and guard the door, however the 16 year old hormonal boy in him was going crazy. As if there was a devil on one shoulder, and an angel on the other, his conscious started to conflict with itself.

"Mate, there's a bloody naked girl on the other side of the door, you should take a peek." Said the devil.

"No Newt, the girl trusts you, don't do it." The angel said.

"There's a tiny crack in the wall over there, if you just peaked in you would probably be able to get a good view." the devil urged.

"Newt if you peep in on Maria, you'd be no different than any of the perverts in the glade. The angel demanded.

"Yeah...but wouldn't you like to see a pair of breasts?" The devil said. Newt had to admit, he really was tempted to peep in on Maria. He hated how easily he was going to give into his temptations, and he may have been about to if it weren't for a glader showing up at the door.

"Move outta the way Newt, I gotta take a piss." Len said, casually strolling by Newt, who grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him back.

"Sorry mate, but I can't let you go in there right now" Newt told him. "Why the hell not" he argued.

"Maria's taking a shower in there, so no one's allowed in there" he said, glaring angrily at Len. Suddenly Lens eyes got wide and a devilish smile graced his face.

"You don't say?" Len said getting an idea. Len quietly began to walk over to the small crack in the wall.

"What the bloody hell are you doing Len? Newt snapped.

"What's it look like Sherlock, I'm taking a peek, just a quick one."

"Like hell you are" Newt growled and shoved Len away from the wall.

"Dude, have you seen the rack on that chick, you'd be crazy not to take advantage of this situation, don't act like you aren't thinking the same thing." Newt paused, deep down he did, but at the moment, he was too disgusted by Len to give in to his primal urges.

"Go fuck yourself, you sicko." Newt spat at him.

"I will once I get a nice view of Maria in the shower, just a peek for the ol' memory bank." Len replied. Newt sneered, his hands balled into fists.

"Ah. Ah. Ah you wouldn't want to go harming another glader now would you?" Len retorted. Newt was this close to punching Len square in the jaw when Maria stepped out of the bathroom. She was wearing the same clothes from earlier, but the only difference was that her hair was sopping wet and in a messy bun and her tank top clung to her body a lot tighter now.

"Newt that was the worst shower ev-" She stopped noticing Len standing next to Newt.

"Thanks a lot Newt, now I'm too late," Len sneered "whatever, I'm leaving, by the way I _love_ that shirt on you Maria." Len winked and left.

"What was that about?" Maria asked, subconsciously crossing her arms over her chest. Newt just shot her a look that said "don't ask"

"Come on Minho should be back from the maze about now, let's go meet up with him" Newt said.

* * *

They walked over to the entrance of the maze right as Minho came back, right on schedule.

"Hey Minho" Newt greeted his best friend, doing that weird handshake bro-hug.

Maria wrinkled her nose. "You're really sweaty" she blurted out.

"Oh I'm sorry maybe it's just because I ran a shucking maze sweetheart" Minho replied. Maria rolled her eyes at him. "I'd love to stay and chat, but maze's don't map themselves, I'll see you suck heads at the bonfire, see ya later shank and lady-shank" Minho gave newt a fist bump and then jogged over to the map room.

Maria smirked "Well isn't he charming"

"That's just the way Minho is, he's pretty sarcastic" Newt told her. "Well anyway I should head back to the room and freshen up for the party tonight, you're more than welcome to tag along." Maria didn't really have a choice, so she walked back to the room with Newt.

Newt's idea of freshening up was putting on a slightly less dirty shirt, and a pair of jeans. Maria couldn't help but notice how the shirt was a little tight on him, and framed his muscular arms and torso. Maria wondered if she should change as well, noticing how relaxed her current outfit was, she rummaged through her bag to see if she had anything acceptable. What she found was a white peasant top and a grey skirt, the outfit itself was very practical and kind of adorable in Marias opinion. It even paired quite nicely with her boots. Maria braided her hair in a waterfall braid and showed off her outfit to Newt, who had to wait outside while Maria changed. She did a twirl in front of him, "what do you think"

Newt grinned "It's pretty girly don't you think?"

"Well I am a girl, if you hadn't noticed." she responded.

"Believe me, I noticed." Newt mumbled under his breath. Maria turned her ear towards him,

"What was that?"

Newt shook his head "nothing, come on, let's head to the bonfire."

* * *

"For being a bunch of clueless boys" Maria thought "they sure through one hell of a party." Bonfire was an understatement, the fire itself was a 6 foot tall inferno that, left unchecked, probably would have burned down the whole camp. For the first time since she was there, she heard music. A few of the gladers were banging on homemade drums, and they were surprisingly good. Some of the boys were wrestling, some were talking, others were drinking a weird drink out of mason jars, all in all everyone appeared to be having a good time. Even Stink was bounding around the glade, playing with his new friend Bark, who was Zart's dog technically since they came up in the box together.

Maria was sitting on the outskirts of the party, happily observing, when Winston came stumbling up next to her.

"Well...If it isn't (hic) the guest of (hic) honorrrr." He slurred. In his hand he held two jars of the strange drink, one of them was half empty, she assumed that was Winston's glass.

"I just wanted to (Hic) apaw-lo-gize.. for earlier." He struggled with his words, and then took another swig of his drink. "So I brought you thisss as a peace off'ring." He shoved the other jar in her hands. "You're welcome...now if you don't mind (Hic)...ima take a nap now." And with that Winston laid down right where he was standing and began to snore.

"Okaaaay" Maria thought, that was weird. She looked quizzically at the drink in her hands, it smelled like piss, and it looked a lot like piss, she doubted that it was anything but piss. She was about to put the glass down, when Newt called to her.

"Hey Maria, this is your party so you better bloody participate" called Newt, who had a similar jar in his hands. He was sitting around the fire along with Minho, Alby, Zart, Clint, and Frypan. Maria walked over and took a seat next to Newt.

"Well don't you look perdy" Frypan slurred as she sat down. She blushed at the compliment.

"Thanks" she smiled. Everyone was acting really weird tonight, she wondered why.

As if Clint was reading her mind, he spoke to her. "They're all drunk in case you didn't notice." he said. "It's Gally's brew, which means it's like 90% alcohol. Maria looked over at Gally, who currently had some poor 13 year old in a headlock over on the wrestling mat. Then she looked back at her drink skeptically.

"You may as well drink it" Clint told her "I personally don't drink it because I'm supposed to be the resident healthy person, but it'll help you loosen up." Maria still wasn't sure.

"Oh com on love." Newt said, "One drink won't kill ya." She looked over at the others to see what they thought only to find they weren't exactly paying attention. Minho was telling Frypan a very animated story about the maze, talking a lot with his hands, while Alby and Zart were singing some kind of camp fire song. Maria was surprised, even Alby looked relaxed.

Minho broke away from his story, noticing Maria's hesitation. "I bet you can't drink the whole thing." He challenged. The boys cheered on the bet, pressuring Maria to accept. Maria sighed, knowing she would have to comply.

"Bottoms up." she grumbled, and took her first sip. It tasted so much worse than she thought. It tasted like a moldy lemon that had been soaking in stomach acid, then left out in the sun for a week. She cringed "this taste like poison." she gagged.

"A dare is a dare, greenie" Alby said. All of the boys chided for her to keep drinking.

She was able to finish the drink, but it was very difficult, she was almost positive she was going to throw up once or twice. The alcohol took over her system almost immediately. She could almost feel her inhibitions being altered, but she did feel a lot more relaxed. So relaxed, that she didn't even notice that she had drunken a whole other bottle of moonshine.

The alcohol was definetly strong, and it made Maria dizzy when she focused on people speaking for too long, the only thing she could really focus on was the music. A fast paced, tribal-like song with an interesting beat. After a few minutes of listening to music, she got an idea.

"Who wants to dance?" she called out. All of the boys stopped.

"Girlie you must really be drunk. Cause we don't dance in the glade-" Minho told her.

"I'll do it!" Newt stood up before Minho could finish his sentence.

"Excuse me?" Minho looked at his best friend like he had gone crazy

"I said I'll dance" Newt smiled cheekily, he honestly wasn't even that drunk, after years of drinking Gally's moonshine he had developed a tolerance to it, he took the opportunity of everyone else being drunk to let loose, and behave more recklessly. So why not dance with Maria, he thought.

"Great then let's go, Maria said grabbing onto Newts arm and yanking him into a clearing in the grass. The drummers began to play a more upbeat song, and the two began to dance.

Newt did not know how to dance, but he didn't really care, he did a few stupid shimmies and cheesy dance moves to get a laugh out of the crowd that had assembled around the two, and they most certainly did laugh at Newt's awkwardness while dancing, for his limp didn't make him the most graceful of dancers.

Maria on the other hand, could definitely dance. Even when she was tipsy she was able to gracefully move. When Maria danced, she moved _every _part of her body, her feet moved effortlessly, her hips moved hypnotically, her upper body stayed in rhythm with her lower body, and everything she did was executed flawlessly. Every now and then she would do a rather risqué dance move, earning a few whistles from the boys in the crowd, and the more she danced, the closer and closer she got to Newt, the two were almost on top of each other, it almost seemed like she was about to fall into his arms when she suddenly turned, and for her grand finale, executed a number of twist, turns, and even a cart wheel. When the music stopped her chest was heaving up and down and she was out of breath. Everyone was silent for a moment.

Slowly the boys in the crowd began to clap, until it finally arose to full blown cheering. Maria smiled wide and took a bow, she walked back past the crowd, and proudly sat back down to wear she was sitting before with Minho and the others. Newt was left standing stunned in the center of the crowd with a stupid grin on his face. This girl was going to be the death of him.


	6. Slammer time

Maria slept like a rock that night, and woke up with a killer hangover.

"Ugghhhh- my head." Maria groaned. She was felt nauseous, and her head throbbed painfully. Last night must have been pretty late, because she barely felt well rested after her sleep. Maria wanted nothing more than to go back to bed, but she knew that if she was going to help out around the glade, she should probably start by not sleeping until ten o'clock in the morning.

Newt was also just waking up, he was considerably less hung over, on account of how little he drank last night. As he stood up and stretched memories came flooding back to Newt from the night before.

_After Maria's dance Newt had rejoined the rest of the group sitting down, still with a stupidly wide grin on his face, all of the guys were applauding Maria's dancing skills, while Mara just smiled and blushed._

_"Oh so now you've gone all shy on us?" Zart teased, "Just a minute ago you had all of the confidence in the world."_

_ Maria just shrugged, "I like to dance."_

_"Well at least you looked good while dancing, this shank over here looked like a pile of klunk when he dances." Minho said nudging Newt in the rib cage. _

_"All right shut your hole Minho." Newt said still with the grin plastered to his face._

_"Well I'll tell ya what" Alby Began, "next time the greenie asks for a dance, I'm in."_

_"Oh slim it Alby, you wouldn't be able to keep up with your big ol' feet." Frypan joked_

_Minho cracked a smile "Ey Alby, you know what they say about big feet amiright?" He joked and took another sip of his drink, his third one of the night._

_The group erupted in laughter while Maria shifted uncomfortably where she was sitting._

_"Right-anyway." Maria tried to change the subject, causing the boys to laugh again. _

_"Uh oh guys, I can see the innocence fleeing from her body!" Minho teased. "Better slim it on the dick jokes huh guys?" Redness crept onto Maria's cheeks._

_"What's with the bloody lot of you? She's clearly uncomfortable, why ya gotta keep teasing her?" Newt spoke in Maria's defense._

_"Oh so the girl gives you one lap dance and suddenly you're her body guard?" Zart replied. Maria and Newt simultaneously turned their heads and glared at him. Maria picked up a nearby rock and made a move as if she were about to throw it at Zart. _

_Zart yelped. "You know what, I'm leaving before I dig myself any deeper into the hole, have a good night you bunch of shuck-heads." Zart stumbled back over to the homestead, drink still in hand. _

_Frypan rolled his eyes "He's more dramatic than Minho sometimes, I swear."_

_"I resent that." Minho snapped. _

_"Oh slim it Minho, don't act like you aren't a regular drama queen, remember when you caught the sniffles and wouldn't stop going on about how close to death you were." Newt interjected. _

_"HEY I swear I thought my heart stopped beating, it was a legitament concern." Minho said defensibly. The group muttered about what a baby he was._

_ "I'm not a baby, I've got more balls then all of you combined" Minho replied._

_ Maria smiled "Well I don't even have testicles to begin with so..." She joked. The group laughed at the wisecrack while Minho just got more defensive. _

_"Shut it Maria you knew what I meant. I'll prove I'm not a wimp I'll...I'll... Oh shuck it I'll climb the tree" Minho finally said. The tree he was referring to was the tallest tree in the glade, it stood about five stories tall and covered with ivy, the only two people who had ever climbed to the top of it were Alby and Gally, back when the glade was just starting out._

_"You're drunk Minho, aint no way you'll climb the tree, you'll klunk your pants before you even get halfway up." Alby said to the delirious glader. Minho hopped up onto his feet and began walking towards the tree, about 200 feet from where they were all gathered._

_"Where the shuck do you think you're going?" Frypan called after him._

_ "I'm climbing the shucking tree." He yelled back. Minho wasn't going to back out now._

_Maria had just drained another glass of the drink. She was completely and indisputably drunk now, so no reasonable part of Maria's mind could have stopped her from what she was about to say._

_"I'm going to!" Maria stood up, her face flush from the alcohol, she wasn't thinking straight at all, but she was excited by the thought of the climb, and wanted to prove that she could do it._

_"No you bloody are not." Newt said "Goin up there is suicide." His voice hitched at the word._

_"Uh-uh" Maria smirked, much like a toddler would have "I'm climbing it and you. Can't. Stop. Me!" She said while poking Newts chest with every word. She smiled wide, turned on her heels, and skipped over to the base of the tree._

_ "Bloody hell" sighed Newt. All of the boys got up and walked to the tree to, eager to see if they were actually going to make it or not._

_Minho, scaled the tree in about ten minutes. "HOW DO YOU SHANKS LIKE ME NOW?!" he yelled from the top of the tree. The gladers on the ground grumbled, annoyed that Minho did not make a complete fool out of himself. Minho even did a little victory dance at the top of the tree, causing all of the boys to collectively groan. _

_The boys had been too preoccupied with Minho to notice how much Maria had been struggling, she was about 3/4 up the trunk of the tree, and was losing her footing. Her mind was too scattered to focus on what was happening. Minho had already shimmied his way down the tree before any of the guys realized what was going on._

_"Oh shit, she's gonna fall isn't she" Alby gasped. Newt turned to look at the slipping girl in surprise, how could he have been so stupid as to let her climb the tree. Maria had lost her footing completely and was now holding on by grabbing on to a branch. She was barely aware of what was going on and she didn't quite realize the danger of the situation she was in. She was slowly losing her grip on the branch. On the ground Newt was freaking out. She was about to fall from the tree, he had to think fast, if he waited too long she would end up as a green bean pancake on the glade floor. Newt considered going up there to save her, but what good would that do, he'd be up there with her, and besides, there was no way Newt would climb the tree. He vowed to never go up that high again after the incident so many months ago. As Newt thought quickly on how to fix the situation, he watched helplessly as one of her fingers slipped off of the branch, followed by the others. Time went in slow motion as he watched Maria fall through the sky, her red hair whipping behind her like a cape in the wind. Newt didn't even have time to think, he instictly dove forward and miraculously caught Maria in his arms just moments before she would have hit the ground._

_Newt's heart stopped. In his arms Maria_ l_aid,_ _curled into him... and she was__giggling?__Of all the things she should have been doing moments after almost dying she was GIGGLING. He had never heard her giggle before, it was the most angelic thing he had ever heard, and it melted all of the anger from his expression, he was so relieved that she hadn't gotten hurt, so much so that he felt his eyes well up with tears of relief. He snapped out of it, he was supposed to be angry with Maria, not cry over her. "What is so bloody funny" he said, trying to look upset" Maria kept on giggling, "I almost died" She said cheerfully "and you saved me!"_

_"Yeah...um yeah I did…" Newt said confused, still holding Maria. "Shuck Maria you know what you did was bloody ridiculous right?"_

_"I know!" she said still with her cheerful tone. Newt shook his head in disbelief, she was so out of it right now, she wouldn't possibly remember any of this in the morning. Newt turned to the crowd of his friends who were still staring in shock, all of them visibly shaken from the thought of what could have happened._

_"I think it's time I take Maria to bed" Newt said to the guys. They didn't protest; however Minho raised an eyebrow at the two of them. _

_"Do you really need to carry her back?" He questioned, looking at the giggling girl still in Newt's arms. Newt paused for a moment._

_ "Yeah I think I will carry her back." He nodded confidently "cause if I let her walk on her own she'll either collapse or try to hurl herself off of another tree." He said. _

_Alby nodded, "Alright Man take her back then." He said, the rest of the guys nodded in approval. They exchanged good byes and Newt began his trek back to the home stead._

_"Neeeeewwwwtttt" Maria yawned, shifting in Newt's arms "can I have a piggy back ride? Pretty please!" She pleaded._

_"Nope." Newt said, carrying her in his arms was hard enough._

_"pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaase?"_

_"You are so difficult, and the answer is still No."_

_"Pleeeeeaaaaa-"_

_"Oh bloody hell alright alright." Newt finally gave in "just hop onto my back let's get this over with." Maria cheered and swung herself onto his back, she giggled once more and snaked her arms around his neck and tucked her legs into his arms._

_"Onwards Newt!" She commanded, still giggling like an idiot. _

_Newt frowned "Im not your bloody horse". _

_Maria giggled again "Your accent is so funny, I like it when you talk all British like." Newt turned his head and looked up at Maria._

_"First you treat me like a horse, and now you're making fun of my accent? Jeez remind me to never let you have a drop of alcohol ever again" he muttered, a small smiled appeared on his lips, he couldn't stay mad at Maria, even in her annoying drunk state._

_The rest of the "ride" was in silence, Newt's limp made it for a rather bumpy piggy back ride, drunk Maria wanted to ask why he had a limp, but in the back of her mind, sober Maria was telling her that it wasn't her business._

_When they arrived at Newts rooms room he put her down, Maria stopped giggling, a serious expression on her face now. "Newt..." She whispered._  
_"What is it love?" he asked, using the British term of endearment that Maria loved so much._

_"Something about you is just sooooooo familiar." She chimed. "It's like I knew you somehow long ago."_

_"Is that so?" Newt whispered. He felt exactly the same, but what was the point of telling her. She wouldn't remember klunk in the morning._

_"And Newt...Thanks for not letting me die" she said shyly, looking down at the floor._

_"Oh it was noth-" Newt was cut off by Maria placing a gentle kiss on his right cheek. Newt froze in place. "Holy shuck did that really just happen?" he thought. Warmth from the kiss spread from his cheek all the way through his body, it was just a simple kiss on the cheek, but to Newt it felt like he had been touched by an angel._

_Before he could say something and make a complete idiot out of himself, Maria fell onto the bed and went to sleep. _

_"Good night newt" she mumbled before drifting to sleep. Newt was left standing there like an idiot with his hand cupping the cheek that her lips had grazed. He went to bed reliving the moment a million times in his head._

_~end of memory~_

A lot had happened the night before, a lot of things that Maria had no memory of.

"Newt what happened last night?" she asked, a surge of pain flooding through her head. Newt rubbed his eyes and recalled once again, the events of last night.

"Let's see you drank, danced a bit, then you basically jumped out of a tree" he told her "So all in all I'd say it was a pretty great night." he added. Maria looked at the boy with a confused expression, she furled her eyebrows and shook her head, deciding it was best to not ask any more questions.

"Sounds like I had a blast." Maria looked at Newt who smiled at her.

"You could say that."

Newt chose to leave out the part where he carried her back to the room and she kissed his cheek. He hoped that the kiss was from a genuine act and not from a spastic drunken moment, but he feared that bringing the kiss up would make things awkward between the two of them.

Maria hated not having any memories, _again_. First she forgets her entire past, then she forgets the events of last night, great, just great. Well whatever had happened, she thought, she was still in her outfit from last night, and she needed to change. She ushered Newt out of the room and chose her outfit for the day. Before she had become blacked out drunk, she remembered Alby telling her something about job tryouts, Maria shrugged, knowing that sooner or later she would have to start pulling her weight around the glade, and got dressed for the day.

In Maria's tired, irritable state she did not feel like dressing to impress today, she threw on the only sweatshirt she had, the jeans she arrived at the glade in, her combat boots, and finally put her hair into a messy bun. All Newt did to change was take off his "party" shirt, as he called it, and threw on a brown hoodie, similar to the purple one Maria had on.

"We're matching!" He exclaimed with a cheeky smile.

"Shut up" Maria hushed, her headache still very prominent. "Let's just go get some shucking breakfast." she finally said, not realizing she had just correctly used a glade vocabulary word. Newt was about to congratulate her on the accomplishment, when he stopped himself. She looked about ready to tear somebody's head off. Another reason, Newt thought, not to let Maria near alcohol again, she would be very unpleasant the morning after. The two walked to breakfast in silence.

Thankfully, Maria thought, many other gladers were also hung over from the night before, so the pavilion was very quiet, despite being filled with 40 gladers. When Maria approached Frypan for her meal, he handed her a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast.

"I gave you a few extra pieces of bacon." Frypan informed her, "Figured you might appreciate it after almost dying last night."

"Almost dying? What are you talking about Frypan?" She wondered, all she knew was that she jumped out of some measly tree.

"You must have been really drunk last night if you didn't remember... Anyway forget I said anything, enjoy the extra bacon." Frypan said, and with that he went to serve the next person in line. Maria walked over to the table she sat at yesterday, the keeper table. She did feel a little out of place among the group considering she wasn't even employed let alone a keeper of anything, but none of the guys seemed to mind. She took her seat next to Newt.

"There's our little light weight" Alby announced as Maria sat down. The rest of the table chuckled half-halfheartedly, most of them in varying states of hung over-ness. Maria rolled her eyes, she was to crabby to deal with whatever had happened last night. By the looks of it Alby, Newt, and Clint were the only people at the table who seemed normal, the rest of the guys all looked like they had been through a tornado, Gally had a black eye from a fight he got in last night, Minho's usually perfect hair laid flat and disheveled on his forehead, While Winston went as far as to had laid his head in his arms and actually fell asleep at the table, snoring loudly. They all ate in silence for the most part, which Maria was grateful for. Zart later informed her that Stink had slept outside with Bark, and the two dogs were now roaming around the glade. Maria felt kind of bad, she hadn't spent much time with Stink yesterday. It felt like she had abandoned her most loyal friend at the glade, she made a silent promise to herself that she would spend more time with Stink. Once it seemed that Maria had woken up a little more, Alby told her about her first job tryout.

"You'll be slicing with Winston today" Alby said, nodding his head towards the sleeping keeper of the slicers. "You'll have about 30 minutes after breakfast, but then I expect you over at the blood house ready to work, understood?" Maria nodded her head in agreement.

"Good, Winston will tell me how well you did, and whether or not you're fit to be a slicer." Maria nodded again. Maria certainly did not want to be a slicer, she wasn't sure exactly what they did, but she did know that they worked in a place called the blood-house, and that wasn't a good sign. Maria also wasn't too fond to be working with Winston, even though he had apologized to her, and the two seemed to be on equal ground, she still thought he was a bit of a jerk.

After breakfast Maria took a short walk around the glade. Minho had left to run for the day, and all of the keepers usually left for their jobs earlier than everyone else, so Maria didn't have anybody to talk to. Maria looked around for Chuck or Stink, just anybody she was familiar with really, but didn't find anyone. Defeated she sat on the grass with a thud, and began her thirty minute wait to go to work.

"Ello Maria." said a voice from behind her. She recognized the accent instantly.

"Ello Newt." She said with a mock British accent.

"Oh real mature." he said as he sat down next to the girl. Newt had stayed behind to help Frypan with the dishes, after he finished, he was supposed to go to the map room to discuss a few things with Alby; however he couldn't help but notice Maria sitting all alone in the center of the Glad "Alby can wait" he thought to himself.

The two had a short conversation regarding Maria's first full day at the glade.

"It was pretty good." She finally answered "Minus the fact that I can't really remember half of it." Newt let out a small chuckle smiled at her, Maria met his gaze and smiled back. The two sat there, gazing into each other's eyes for no longer then a couple of seconds, when a certain ass hole had decided to make an appearance.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite green bean...and Newt, just the shank I wanted to talk to" Len greeted. Newt scowled at the boy, remembering how shitty he had acted the day before.

"So let me get this straight Newt" Len continued "you had a girl in your room, drunk off her shucking ass last night, and I willing to bet that you didn't even take advantage of that at all."

"What the shuck is wrong with you Len, I mean first of all Maria is literally right here, hearing every word you say, and second, you're a real disgusting ass hole." Newt shouted at Len. Len put his hands up in peace, but kept his creepy grin on his face.

"All I'm saying is that if I were in the situation, I would have handled it much differently. It's pretty stupid of you to keep wasting these golden opportunities."

"Well thank god it wasn't you, now would you be so kind as to fuck off." Maria spat at Len. If Maria mildly disliked Winston, then she absolutely despised Len. She saw him standing next to the bathroom after her shower yesterday, and she knew he was there for some disgusting reason, even in general Len always had some gross comment to make about Maria.

Len snarled "Did I ask you girlie? I believe I didn't. Anyway I heard from Frypan that you almost had quite a nasty fall last night, would have been a shame if any part of your hot bod got injured. If you survived, you'd probably have to live on with a little bit of a limp...yeah a limp, a limp exactly like the one Newt over here has. Why it seems like only yesterday that this pathetic shuck got fed up with feeling sorry for himself, climbed up to the top of the wall, and-" Len never got the chance to finish his sentence because at that moment Newt's fist collided violently with Len's jaw. Len let out a blood curdling scream before collapsing to the ground unconscious.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Maria grinned looking at the comatose boy on the grass, if anyone deserved a sucker punch to the face, it was Len.

"Yeah it felt pretty great." Newt said observing his fist, the punch had hurt Newt's hand, but it was worth it to shut Len up. Len had no business saying shit like that, hearing him recall the events of his past had clouded Newt with such a fury, he wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of the shank. Newt's small victory was short lived when he heard a voice shouting at him from across the glade.

"NEWT WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Alby yelled, running up to him, "and don't even try to defend yourself, I saw everything."

"Alby, listen-" Newt began trying to explain himself, but Alby wouldn't have it.

"Slim it Newt. You're second in command, you should know better, you can't just go breaking the rules like this." Alby yelled. Newt tried to open his mouth to defend himself but was quickly shut up by Alby.

"I'm sorry Newt but we can't have this behavior in the Glade. You know the drill. You're in the slammer for 24 hours... I'll walk you over there."

Newt sighed, "Whatever it was worth it" he mumbled, loud enough for Maria to hear. She let out a small laugh.

"And as for you greenie, I'm sure you had something to do with this, but I don't have any proof, so just go make your way over to the blood- house and report to Winston. It's probably best for you to get some time away from Newt, you're spending all your shucking time with him." Maria didn't know why but she felt her cheeks brighten at his last comment.

"Alright Alby we get it, you're in charge here, come on and lock me up already." Alby squinted and grabbed Newt by the arm.

"I hate to do this Newt but rules are rules."

"Whatever." Newt muttered, as he started to walk to the slammer, not before waving good bye to Maria. Maria waved back, for some reason the gesture seemed really sweet to her, he went out of his way to wave good bye to her before he left.

"CAN ONE OF YOU SHANKS GO DRAG LEN TO THE MED-HUT?" Alby shouted behind him. Two boys picked Len up by his arms and dragged him away, leaving Maria as the center of the crowd that had assembled.

"What are you guys looking at?" She muttered before strutting off to the blood-house.

"You're late." Winston said to her as she walked into the blood house.  
"Well I was just-"

"I don't really care, Right now we got slicing to do." He told Maria, which did not sound comforting at all. Winston grinned wickedly. "It's always fun to show the green beans my job."

Maria swallowed wondering if Winston was in fact a psychopath. He led her over to a back room where there were pens of pigs and chickens, as well as a mat in the middle of the floor covered in what looked like dried blood. Maria went white as a sheet, realizing what being a slicer meant. Winston picked up a medium sized pig from the pen and brought it over to the central mat.

"Watch and learn greenie." He chuckled, and grabbed a knife from his belt and grabbed the pig by the head. Maria felt like she was about to throw up, before Winston preformed his terrible duty, the pig locked eyes with Maria. She closed her eyes and heard a wretched squeal...and then silence.

"That wasn't so bad was it greenie?" He asked looking up at her. Maria didn't answer him, in fact she had already run out the door.

Winston shook his head in disbelief "every time."

Maria didn't stop running until the blood house was completely out of her sight. She hunched over, out of breath from running. Anything was better than that horrible blood house. She ended up at the southern wall of the glade, she had been in this area once, on her tour with Newt. Newt, she thought, she could really use somebody to talk to get her mind off of what just happened. Maria thought for a moment, she was at the southern wall, the slammer was near the southern wall, and Newt was in the slammer. That convinced her, she was going to pay a visit to Newt in Jail.

The slammer was a wooden structure, one cell buried half underground, with wooden planks surrounding the whole area. The door was sealed shut with a locked chain and all that was inside the cell was a single chair, and one very disgruntled teenage boy.

"Hello criminal" Maria said, crouching at one of the openings between the planks. Newt looked up and for a moment he perked up and smiled, but quickly he slouched back down in his chair. 

"You're not supposed to be here Maria." He told her. "Shouldn't you be slicing with Winston?"

"What I can't pay my dear friend Newt a visit while he's in prison?" she said with a dramatic tone. Newt simply raised an eyebrow at her, giving her a look that said he didn't believe her.

"Okaaay I ran away from Winston because he's a cruel animal murdering psychopath." Maria admitted.

Newt laughed "while that may be true, it's his job, and it's a necessary one at that. Winston probably gets 60 percent of our food for us."

Maria wrinkled her nose. "I don't care, there's no way in hell I'll become a slicer" She told him. Newt laughed once more.

"Yeah you didn't strike me as the animal killing type when you first showed up here, especially with that dog in your arms." Newt said.

Maria cocked her head to the side, "Oh really, well what did I strike you as?" She asked, curious to know what Newt's first impression of her was like.

Newt smiled "well to be honest I was a little too busy marveling at the first bloody girl I had ever seen in the glade."

Maria looked up at him and smiled wider "yeah I am pretty marvelous aren't I?" And then, just like earlier that day, they met each other's gazes and locked eyes. Maria's blue-green eyes meeting Newt's warm brown eyes. And just for that moment, time seemed to stand still again for Newt. He was glad that, of all people, it was Maria who had come to visit him in the slammer.

"I guess you are pretty marvelous Maria." Newt answered. Maria broke her gaze and looked down sheepishly due to the compliment.

"You're not so bad yourself Newt..."

They talked for what seemed like hours, about anything and everything. They talked about what their memories may have been like, about friends, possible family members, events in the glade, just every topic they could think of. Newt contributed the most stories to the conversation, since he had more memories than Maria, and she would patiently listen. Newt listened to Maria describe her first impressions of all of the gladers, and Maria thought she would die from laughing at Newt's impression of Gally, he would stretch his forehead to make his eyebrows arch in ridiculous ways, making Maria laugh so hard that tears welled in her eyes. They didn't stop talking until the sun had begun to set. Newt had just finished telling the story of the time Chuck got his foot stuck in a urinal, when Maria thought of a question that hadn't been answered.

"Hey Newt?" she asked "What do I look like?"

"What do you mean?" Newt looked at her confused. Maria paused-

"I mean what do I look like, there aren't any mirrors in the glade, and Im just curious to know what I look like." She said, looking at Newt expectantly. Newt wanted to say that she looked beautiful, but figured he better not, so not to ruin the mood of the conversation.

"Well, you got long red- brown hair" He began "a nice sharp chin, a small- button like- nose, and rosy cheeks. Your face is covered in millions of tiny freckles, and you have two little dimples, one on each cheek. Your eyes are this beautiful teal color, and I mean it. I don't remember much of anything from before the glade, but I do remember what the ocean looks like...and it's the exact same color as your eyes." The more he described her, the closer he moved towards her, until he was about 5 inches in front of her, separated only by the wooden planks of the slammer.

"Does that answer your question?" Newt said, so close to Maria that she could feel his breath on her skin, yet the slammer bars may as well have put a 10 mile barrier between the two of them.

"Yeah...yeah it does." Maria answered, dumb struck my how in detail Newt had described her, the way he talked about her sent a tingling sensation through her chest, and made goose bumps appear on her arms. She looked at the setting sun, then she looked into his eyes one last time, "I've gotta go, it's probably dinner time and I don't want the guys to come looking for me."

"You're just gonna leave me here? To rot in my jail cell?" He joked, silently sad that it was time for Maria to leave.

"Sorry Newtie, but I've got a whole room to myself tonight." she grinned "I'll see ya in the morning. Sleep tight!" She stood up, brushing the dirt off of her pants, and jogged back over to the dining pavilion, the tingling sensation in her chest still present.

"Did she just call me Newtie?" The blonde boy said to himself.

.

All of the boys at the table wanted to know where Maria had been all day.

"She couldn't stomach the sight of pig's blood and ran off." Winston told the guys, all of whom muttered something along the lines of how they expected such to happen.

"So where did you run to? Minho asked, stuffing a forkful of ham into his mouth, the ham that probably belonged to the pig Winston killed.

"Let's just say I was hiding from Winston, the animal murdering psychopath." Maria informed the table, not exactly telling a lie.

"Fair enough." Alby shrugged.

Maria smiled to herself, it looks like she's gonna like it here in the maze.


	7. absense makes the heart grow fonder

Maria tossed and turned in bed, desperately hoping for sleep to overcome her, but to no avail, whenever she shut her eyes all she could see were the eyes of the poor pig Winston killed. Of course she knew that it was necessary for the pig to die, but _why_did she have to see the whole thing, why couldn't she just live the rest of her days at the glade in blissful ignorance, without having to know about how exactly they got their food supply. Maria almost cried once or twice at the thought of the poor little pig, but her tears dried at a terrible thought she had. She realized that, to her horror, dinner that night had been ham. Maria groaned, there she was whining about the unethical treatment of pigs, when she herself had eaten the farm animal for dinner.

"God I'm such a hypocrite" she grumbled, as she flopped back onto the pillow. Stink whimpered at the foot of the bed, unhappy to be disturbed by Maria's insomniatic habits. Maria sighed, at least Stink was with her. She had felt so bad for neglecting him the past two days. Stink didn't seem to mind that much though. When the two had reunited after dinner tonight Stink had run up to her with as much excitement and friendship as the day they had first met in the box. It was good to know that Stink's loyalty couldn't be done away with that easily.

When Maria wasn't around Stink would spend his time with Zart's dog, Bark. Zart apparently had a _huge_ soft spot for animals, and he had been the one feeding Stink and cleaning up after him for the past couple of days. Zart's love of animals was also the reason he never spent much time alone with Winston, the resident animal killer. When Maria tried to thank Zart for his help with Stink he merely brushed it off.

"It's not a problem...I just really love dogs" was all he had to say to her.

Now Stink was back with her, and he had curled into her restless body, as if he was trying to calm her down. Maria smiled and slung her arm over the dog to embrace him in a hug. Thank god Stink was in the room with her, otherwise she would have been left all alone in Newt's room, a thought that had sounded good to her earlier in the day, but now kind of scared her. The homestead was a hastily built structure that creaked and groaned severely from the gladers moving about in it, a long drawn out moaning sound sent a chill up her spine, she wasn't sure if that was the house or a griever. Either way the placed seemed down right haunted. She had never really noticed how scary the room was at night, why was that? She guessed it was because Newt had always been in the room with her, distracting her with conversation and keeping her from hearing the creaking building.

"Great, now I can't stop thinking about this place being haunted" the thought practically destroyed any chance of Maria going to sleep at a reasonable hour. She shot up in bed, slightly freaked out from the made up ghosts that, she convinced herself, were residing in the homestead. Maria's eyes darted around the room, looking for a distraction from her terrifying thoughts, but she didn't find much. The only thing Maria saw was Newt's sleeping bag, and his box of possessions in the corner of the room. Maria looked curiously at the pile, there was a heap of clothing as well as a few other things that Maria couldn't distinguish from far away.

She wanted to go investigate but she paused, was she really about to route through Newt's belongings? "No...That would be absurd...and completely uncalled for..." Were the words that went through Maria's mind right before she got out of bed. It turns out she was totally about to route through Newt's stuff.

It wasn't like Maria was trying to be a creeper, she just needed a way to occupy her time until she felt tired enough to go to sleep, and who knows? Maybe Newt had a bottle of sleeping pills tucked away in his box of belongings that would deliver Maria from her bought of sleeplessness.

Maria started by sifting through his clothes, most of them very similar looking to one another. "They smell like him" Maria thought...wait that was weird, when had she been close enough to Newt to discern what he smelled like? She asked herself, before she remembered visiting him at the slammer, and that moment when his face had been mere inches from hers. "Oh yeah... that explains it" She concluded. Newt didn't smell like a dirty, sweaty teenage boy, like a few certain gladers did, (cough cough Winston cough). No instead Newt smelled like freshly cut grass, an odd smell maybe, but one that Maria found quite pleasant. She put down his shirt and went back to looking through his stuff. "Am I really about to invade Newt's privacy?" she asked herself. "Yeah I am." She told herself and dove into the box.

The first thing she pulled out was a stack of papers, which upon closer inspection she realized were drawings. In her hands were ten or so rough charcoal sketches depicting scenes from around the glade. One was an image of the homestead, another one was a drawing of Bark the dog, there were a few random pictures of trees and the forest, and even a caricature of Gally, complete with incredibly exaggerated eyebrows, Maria chuckled at that one. The last one Maria turned took her breath away, it was a picture of the glade, the entire glade from an aerial view. How was Newt able to draw this? She thought. The only way he would have been able to get a proper reference for the picture would be if he had actually seen the glade from that high up before. "But when would Newt have been 100 feet in the air? The only thing that tall in the whole glade was...the walls. She dismissed the weird conclusion her mind was beginning to jump to, maybe he just had a really accurate imagination. Maria put the picture down gingerly, careful not to smudge the fine charcoal on the paper. It really was quite beautiful, and every detail looked accurate. Newt had shaded everything so realistically that one might mistake it for a slightly out of focus black and white photograph of the glade instead of a charcoal sketch.

The next thing Maria grabbed out of the box was a watch, a watch Maria had noticed every other keeper wearing, and she had never seen Newt without his. She determined that it must have been an extra. Maria strapped it on her wrist and checked the time. _1:30 am_. She knew she should have been asleep by now, but she was having a little too much fun going through Newt's things. "That sounded really creepy" Maria thought. She shrugged and went back to exploring. She figured Newt wouldn't mind if Maria took his extra watch.

It turns out Newt didn't have a lot of things, the rest of the stuff she found was pretty normal, a few pencils, some wood carvings (very good wood carvings at that), and a spare blanket. Maria sighed, slightly disappointed that she didn't find anything else. She figured that it was about time she tried to go back to bed again anyway. While she was over there, she thought she may as well grab the spare blanket, but when she grabbed it she saw something that made her break out in the widest smile.

Hiding underneath the blanket was a teddy bear, the bear was a light tan color with black buttons for eyes, and patches of the bear's fur had been worn away here and there, signaling to Maria that the bear was quite old. She pictured Newt sleeping with the stuffed animal. Seeing the teddy bear gave Maria a new perspective on Newt. He wasn't such a big tough guy after all, deep down, he was a big softie, who happened to be really artistic. Newt had a real sensitive side, she figured.

_"Newt..."_She thought about him in the slammer, with nothing but a chair for company. She got an idea, a stupidly impulsive idea, but an idea none the less. She grabbed the blanket, and the teddy bear and made her way outside.

She was going to have to be careful to not make noise, for most of the gladers slept outside, and the last thing she needed was one of them waking up and seeing her sneak out into the forest. She retraced her footsteps down the path she had taken earlier that day until she had approached a familiar building. The slammer, population: Newt.

"Newt" she whispered, glancing in to see a Newt with his back turned to her, sitting upright. He didn't respond.

"Newt!" She tried again. No response. She huffed blowing her bangs out of her eyes, frustrated that he didn't answer her. She picked up pebble and chucked it at the back of Newt's head.

"What the shucking shuck?" Newt cursed whipping his head around, ready to yell at whoever through the rock at him. He quickly recognized that it was Maria, and the anger in his expression died down, but he was still pretty pissed at her for waking him up.

"Maria it's the middle of the night, what are you bloody doing here?" He whispered back. Maria opened her mouth to say something, but paused. She didn't really know what to tell him without her sounding like a weirdo.

"I-ummm...I felt bad for you...out here in the cold... all alone, so I brought you some things." She answered awkwardly.

Newt grinned, "You just can't keep away from me can ya?"

"Shut up Newt I'm just trying to be nice." She responded, thankful that the darkness of night concealed her blush. "Anyway I brought you this." She said, while throwing the blanket at him through the opening. Newt nodded in thanks.

"I also thought you might appreciate...THIS." she smiled and held up the teddy bear. Newts jaw dropped open and he quickly scrambled to grab it out of her hands; however she held it just far enough out of his reach. Newt clasped at the air in frustration, he had an embarrassed blush on his face.

"How did you- where did you get-"He squinted at Maria. "You little shit, you went through my stuff didn't you?" he hissed.

Maria nodded her head "maybe I did, maybe I didn't. You can't prove anything." She grinned, still holding the bear in front of Newt. "So what's his name?" she asked.

"What are you on about, you shucking snoop?" he questioned.

"I mean what's your bear's name? I'm sure he's got one." Maria teased. "I won't give him back to you unless you tell me."

Newt wanted to protest, but he didn't, he sighed and looked down at the ground. "Isaac...his names Isaac" he murmured. His moment of mortification was cut short by the sound of Maria _squealing_ "OOOOHHH MYYYY GOD!" She almost shouted. "THATS SOOO CUTE" Newt took that as the opportunity to snatch the bear out of her hands, he protectively held the animal tightly.

"Alright, alright keep it down girlie you'll wake everyone up." Newt snapped. "Sorry" Maria said quietly. "Anyway you have to tell me how you got him. Did you make him, or did the creators send him up? If they did can I ask them to send me a teddy bear? I really want a teddy bear now"

"No..." newt began the story of how the bear got to be, "The creators sent him up a month after I arrived at the glade, I was having a pretty hard time grasping onto the fact that I had no memories... I cried a lot during my first month, and I don't know I guess they felt bad for me. So the next box shipment we get, there's a little package in there with my name on it, I open it and there's the bear. I named him Isaac, I just really liked the name for some reason. He was like my security blanket, holding him made me feel calmer, I have a feeling that I've always had Isaac with me, like even before I was sent to the bloody glade. "Newt shook his head." I don't know why I just told you that...You're probably gonna tease me as bad as Minho did, in fact Minho only stopped teasing me about Isaac a couple of months ago, he probably forgot I had him."

"Don't worry Newt...It'll be out little secret, I won't tease you." Maria promised. The only sound they could here was the sound of the various bugs, chirping in the forest.

"You best be on now... I think we both could use some sleep." Newt said, not meeting Maria's gaze. She nodded in agreement. "Now get outta here before somebody bloody catches you." Newt ordered.

"Wow, that wasn't the polite Newt I've come to know" She shook her head while smirking. "Prison changed you."

Newt cracked a smile at the joke. "You're too late Maria, I've already succumb to my criminal ways."

Maria put on an expression of mock horror, "What have you turned into?" she said dramatically. Both of them snickered at each other's terrible acting. Once the laughter died down Newt regained his serious expression.

"But seriously love, you should leave now." Maria pouted but stood up, she wanted to ask him about his drawings, but decided it that she could wait till the morning.

"See ya tomorrow jail bird." She waved goodbye and jogged back towards the homestead. By the time she got back in the room her newly acquired watch read _3:OO am_.

Maria carefully slipped into bed, cautious not to wake her sleeping dog, her pajamas consisted of a pair of leggings and the baggiest t-shirt the creators had sent her. And surprisingly, as soon as her head hit the pillow, she drifted off into a pleasant, dreamless sleep.

_Next morning_

Maria woke up feeling energized and alert, which was shocking considering how little sleep she had gotten. Maria got dressed by changing from her t-shirt into a slightly loose fitting tank top, but she kept her leggings on. She braided her hair to the best of her ability, she really could do with a hair brush, she made a mental note to ask the creators for one later. She finished getting ready, and then, with Stink trailing behind her, she set off to breakfast.

At breakfast, the boys were loud and rowdy, very much unlike the day before, when everyone was hung over. Everybody seemed well rested, and were all happily enjoying a breakfast of oatmeal. Frypan, as usual, was very polite to her when he handed her the meal. Maria smiled, she was convinced that Frypan made a point to give her a little more food than the rest of the gladers.

When she arrived at the keeper table, she somehow felt even more out of place since Newt wasn't there, she wondered if she was even allowed to sit there without the ok from Newt.

"Take a seat, greenie" Alby called to her, noticing her pause. "You're still welcome here even if your roomie's in the slammer." Maria smiled gratefully and took her seat. When she sat, all of the boys at the table looked at her wrist peculiarly.

"Why do you have a shucking watch on greenie?" Minho asked.

"Yeah just because you sit at this table doesn't mean you get the keeper watch too" Clint added.

Winston rolled his eyes. "She may as well be a keeper considering she gets all of our perks, she sits with us, she gets a room in the homestead, and now she gets the shucking watch to. Where did you even get the shank watch anyway?"

Maria shrugged "I stole it" She said, a slight grin on her face.

"Of course she did" Zart muttered. "The greenie's acting like she's a shucking keeper when she don't even have a job yet." he chuckled. The boys all acted annoyed, but Maria could tell that they weren't really that mad at her. She took that as a good sign.

"Speaking of job-" Alby interjected, "You got your second tryout today, you're with Gally and the builders. And no you definitely are not going to be a slicer after your shuck performance yesterday" Maria nodded, and turned to Gally, who's black eye had gone down slightly.

"What are we building?" she asked the oddly eye browed keeper.

"Right now we're working on the girl's bathroom." He replied, not looking up from his food.

"I GET MY OWN BATHROOM?!" She cheered. This was the best news she heard all day no more having to share with a bunch of gross boys. "It was Newt's idea" Gally said, still eating. Maria beamed, of course Newt would be the one to suggest that.

"Well thanks for building it, you have no idea how happy I am to not have to share with you disgusting slobs anymore." The guys all chuckled, and teased Maria back. The rest of breakfast was filled with small talk, and everyone, for the first time since she had showed up, seemed totally happy.

_SOme time later_

Maria was a shuck awful builder. Apparently building a bathroom was one of the hardest jobs in the world. All of the experienced builders went to work hooking up the utilities to water lines, and did other things Maria couldn't quite comprehend. Gally gave her the easy job of nailing boards together to make the walls. It seemed simple enough, but Maria didn't quite get the hang of it, she ended up nailing her shoelace to the boards instead, and wasted a good hour trying to free herself. By the time her work was over she had successfully nailed 4 boards together, while the builder had practically constructed the entire bathroom in under 5 hours.

"I'm not cut out to be a builder huh Gally?" She asked when she noticed the keeper walk up to her work space.

"No you most certainly are not." Gally said to her with little sympathy in his voice, "I'm sure you'll find something you're good at." He told her, trying to lift her spirits. Maria smiled at Gally, and was about to thank him when a boy approached them.

"Bloody hell Gally, you finished the whole thing in under a day?" Newt said, astonished by the builders competence.

Gally grinned at the recognition of his work, "Yeah it's basically done...no thanks to the girl though." he joked. Maria tried to look angry but she ended up smiling at the completely true statement. She turned to admire the finished bathroom, it was a pretty small room, only one shower, a toilet, and a sink. The builders would have added more stuff but Maria had to inform them that girls did not use urinals. That was a rather awkward conversation to have.

"Alright greenie you're free to go" Gally said, "your bathroom should be fully functional by the end of day"

"See you later Gally" Maria said, about to leave, "Or should I say See ya later G_ally-_gator" She said with a cheesy smile. Gally slapped his hand to his face. "Do me a favor greenie, and never say that again or I'll punch you in that girlie face of yours" he threatened jokingly

"Point taken. Goodbye" Maria waved before leaving the builders. Newt followed behind her.

"Good to see you're out of jail" She giggled jabbing Newt in the ribs." Newt laughed

"Yeah they let me out for good behavior. Maria raised an eyebrow at him, "Or because your 24 hours was up?" she said. Newt rolled his eyes and then turned to Maria.

"So today's Tuesday" he said matter of factly.

Maria gave him a look like he was crazy "Yeah...It is" she said slowly.

Newt continued. "and umm on Tuesdays a couple of the guys usually go down to the river for a swim before dinner...and I thought it would be nice to invite you" Newt finished.

Maria thought about it, spending time with a bunch of guys who would most likely be shirtless, and getting to go swimming in addition. Maria nodded her head a little too eagerly.

"I'm in." Newt chuckled at her enthusiasm "great, we'll head over to the river in about 30 minutes when Minho gets back. Maria grinned, she was going to see Minho shirtless, and judging by the biceps on that boy, well let's just say Maria had sort of already imagined how Minho's six-pack looked. Maria faltered in walking for moment, she figured the guys would all just swim in their shorts or something, it hadn't occurred to her what she was going to wear. She shook her head not wanting to dwell on that dilemma, sure that she'd figure something out.

And figure out something she did, because thirty minutes later, she was walking down to the river next to Newt, most of the boys had already gathered by the water, some shirtless, some not, Maria smiled, liking what she saw already.

"You brought the girl?" Winston said.

Newt just shrugged, "I was being nice." he replied.

Alby chuckled and clasped Newt on the back, "You sure are awfully nice to the girl, huh shank?"

Newt rolled his eyes "Oh slim it Alby." Newt replied, and then pushed Alby into the water. The guys all laughed, even Alby when he resurfaced from the water. The guys all took that as the single to go in to, all of them took their shirts off, revealing many different abs to Maria, in her persona opinion Minho won the competition, followed closely by Newt and then Gally was it third. She had a very pleased look on her face, and was very much enjoying herself. Minho caught her staring and made a big show of flexing his muscles in front of her, he winked flirtily at her. Maria blushed and giggled awkwardly. What Maria did not expect was for all of the guys to start to take their shorts and pants off as well. Maria went beet red and averted her eyes almost immediately. Newt laughed next to her.

"Relax we're wearing our johnnies still." He assured her, Maria cautiously looked up, relieved to see that they were all still wearing boxer shorts. The guys all laughed.

"What did you think we were gonna swim in our shucking birthday suits?" Minho teased.

"Well we did do that once-" Winston mentioned. The rest of the group quickly shut him up and glared at him.

"We agreed to _never_ speak of that day again." Clint hissed at Winston.

"Right my bad my bad." Winston quickly added.

One by one the guys all jumped in the water, until finally Maria was left on the surface, still fully clothed. Skeptical as to whether or not her choice of swim wear was a good idea after all. The water did look nice, and the guys all looked to be having fun. "Oh shuck it" Maria thought, and began to take off her cover up to reveal her "Bathing suit."

Her bathing suit was a pair of boy short underwear and a sports bra, both bright white in color. The ensemble revealed her toned stomach, and long smooth legs. Little did Maria know that while she had been taking her cover up off all of the guys had turned to watch, dumb founded by the underwear clad girl. Maria smiled, she had a vague idea of what she was currently doing to the guys, and felt a rush of confidence surge through her body, Maria was in fact pretty confident _about_ her body, and she felt comfortable with what she was wearing in front of them. It was only times like when Len was staring at her chest without her consent that made Maria feel self-conscious and uncomfortable.

Maria dove into the water and resurfaced, her hair now soaking wet and laid straight down her back. None of the guys said a word, they were all still treading in stunned silence. Maria broke the silence,

"You guys like my bathing suit? She asked. The guys all nodded like maniacs.

"_That_ is the most spectacular bathing suit I've ever seen" Newt finally said. The rest of the guys all added their own positive comments on the outfit, but stayed relatively respectful, which Maria was glad for. After all, them being keepers meant they had to be the most mature men of the glade.

"well seeing as you guys all like it so much, I guess you wouldn't really care if I did this" She grinned wickedly and then splashed Gally with a wave of water. Gally spat out a stream of water and recovered from the hit and squinted his eyes.

"Oh it. Is. on. Greenie" he yelled, and that sent the whole group into a frenzy of splashing, tackling, and goofing off with each other.

They spent their time participating in various, water related activities. Maria lost at the breath holding contest, however she won the game of water chicken, siting on Newt's shoulders. The two of them cheered when they successfully took down Zart and Frypan. For the rest of the night, they enjoyed themselves in the water, staying long enough to miss dinner.

"Hey Frypan-" Maria called "Shouldn't you be at dinner right now? Cooking?" she asked. Frypan shook his head "I let Cooper handle it, he's my sous chef" Frypan answered. Maria nodded at the answer and went back to racing Minho to the other side of the river. She lost hopelessly because Alby had much more practice than she did. Maria still had a great time though.

At about 9:00 everyone got out of the water, incredibly tired and pruned from all of the swimming. All of the guys got changed back into their clothes, but Maria wasn't too keen on squeezing back into her leggings, so rather she took Newt's shirt and wore that instead.

"I swear this girl won't stop until she's taken all of my bloody shirts." Newt shook his head smiling, Maria remembered she had never given Newt back his blue shirt from her first night.

"What can I say, they're comfortable." Maria defended herself. Alby and Newt rolled their eyes.

This night had been the most fun night of Maria's life (that she could remember anyway, so that meant the bonfire didn't count). She was treated like one of the guys, and all of them seemed to like her now. Maria smiled as she went to bed last night, still wearing Newt's shirt, and with Stink curled into her.

"Goodnight Newt" she turned to the British boy on the floor, how's it feel to not be in jail.

"It feels brilliant." He grinned cheekily. "Goodnight love" he said and shut off the light. Before the room went dark Maria could just make out the silhouette of a teddy bear tucked into Newt's sleeping bag. She smirked.

"Tell Isaac I said goodnight too." She giggled

"Oh shut up."

**AN: yup so that was the chapter. Im so proud of myself for updating so frequently, i deserve a pat on the back don't i. anyway im starting to develop Maria's personality a lot more, and yes, she does seem to enjoy being around shirtless guys. What you didn't think I was gonna let Len have all of the perverted fun did you? hell no cuz if I was Maria, surrounded by in shape hot teenage shirtless boys, i'd be having myself a time let me tell ya. Also let me point out that Maria does not have a crush on Minho(not really) Maria just**_**really**_**appreciates his killer abs. Anyway I don't know why I added this authors note, or if you even read them. So uh Submit suggestions and OC's!**


	8. no soup for you

**AN thanks for the reviews and what not- always great to see 'em. I just wanted to say there is gonna be ****_teeny_**** little time skip in this chapter. I don't want Maria and Newts relationship to be to rushed, like I don't want them to be officially dating just 4 days after she shows up. So yeah, you'll see what I mean when you start reading. ****_ALSO_**** since I know you guys just loove to submit things into the story, why don't you guys send me ship names for MariaxNewt?It doesn't have to be a mashup of their names like Mewt (which sounds really bad to me) It could be like idk Red British (obviously not but I was just tryna show you what I mean) so let's see now the list of things you can submit are OC's, tiny suggestions, and ship names. love ya guys so much thanks for reading so far.**

_A brief summary of the past weeK told with extreme sarcasm by Maria, to you, the readers:_

"Oh last week has just been swell. yup- all of my job tryouts went along swimmingly , and by swimmingly I mean ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. As it turns out, I'm not good at anything. First I completely bomb both the slicer, and the builder tryouts, Next, my tryout with the baggers was terrible, I was thankful their weren't any dead bodies to pick up, but when it came to my police abilities, I failed big time. I was assigned to break up a fight between two gladers and instead of breaking up the fight, I just made it worse. (it probably wasn't helping that I had been cheering on the fight in the first place.) So I wasn't cut to be a bagger. "No worries" Alby said to me, "there is plenty of other jobs in the glade" he said."

"My tryout with Zart I don't even want to talk about really...I just...who knew tomato's could just explode like that. So after I was done cleaning up the remains of what will now be referred to as TOMATO-GEDDON- Zart informed that I was not going to be a track-hoe. My next tryout was with the bricknicks, which I was shocked to realize was even a job, like I didn't even realize the keeper of the bricknicks, James, even ate at the same table as all of the keepers and I. He was so quiet, and he kept to himself a lot, the only thing that stood out about him were his bright green eyes on his pale face. James seemed polite enough, but I could tell he was getting annoyed with me when I managed to rip a giant wooded board off of the homestead. "You were supposed to fix the hole not make it bigger" he yelled at me with his thick Irish accent, before telling me i was really not meant to be a bricknick. James yelling at me also may have had something to do with me calling him a leprechaun, which I totally deny."

"They tried me practically everywhere. They put me in the supply room, but I accidentally knocked down all of the boxes. My last hope would be to work with Frypan in the kitchens, otherwise I would have to be *groan* a slopper. Not that there anything that bad with being a slopper, I mean chuck seems pretty happy with his job, it's that I'm not really looking forward to cleaning up the boy's toilets, or doing their laundry. I better not blow it today, Either Im a cook, or Im stuck cleaning after 40 boys on a daily basis.

_This has been "a brief summary of the last week told with extreme sarcasm by Maria, to you, the readers" We will now we return to your regularly scheduled third person narration point of view taking place in the present tense._

Maria sat up in bed and stretched, today was the day. The day that decided whether or not Maria was doomed to be a slopper. She glanced at her stolen-no- acquired watch- _6:00 am _it read. Maria sighed, she may as well get ready early for one of the most important day of her glader life. At the end of the day, the keeper's would have a gathering to decide what she would become, and pretty much all of the keepers have already told her how unlikely her employment would be. Maria internally groaned, for the past week Alby had been trying to reassure her that she would find whats she's good at, but she could tell that even he didn't really believe himself when he said that.

Maria got out of bed, careful to not wake up neither Newt or Stink. In her free time Maria was spending a lot more time with Stink, just like she promised. Stink, as it turns out, is really intelligent. Maria had taught him out to shake, speak, and play fetch. Zart had given her stolen a few pieces of meat from the kitchen and had given them to Maria to use a treats for training. It was a weird gesture, but it was probably meant to say "I forgive you for making all of the tomatoes explode, so here is a handful of various meats to show my forgiveness." Her and Stink were practically inseparable, and the loyal dog rarely left her side.

As for Newt... well Maria hadn't really talked to him since the night they went swimming. Newt apparently did have a job, Maria just thought that he did whatever he wanted because he was second in command, but as it turns out Newt was really busy almost all of the time, His official job title was "Keeper of the records" And his job was to document everything. He hardly showed up to meals anymore, he ate wherever his job took him, be it the supply room where he documented supplies, the map room where he strategised with Minho, or he would be in the Med hut with Ben, the runner who had gotten stung. He would record the events of the changing to go in the glade records. Now that Maria thought about it, Newt had basically been spending all of his time in the Med-hut, with Clint, Jeff ,and Ben. Maria felt terrible for feeling jealous about it, but she missed spending time with him, she missed the late night conversations they had her first couple of nights at the glade. Newt went to bed late now, and was hardly in the mood for conversing. The only time Maria could even get a word in with Newt was in the morning, as they were getting ready for the day. (Gally had installed a small modesty curtain in Newts room so the two could change without the other having to leave the room). Maria sighed It wasn't like Newt owed her his company, and she didn't want to come off as needy or annoying, but whenever she got to talk to him, an event that had become a rarity, her heart beated quicker, and she momentarily felt like she was floating. Was that weird? Is that supposed to happen? She thought. Hopefully she could talk to him this morning before they both had to go to work, she could use a few words of encouragement right now.

Maria left the room and headed to her designated bathroom, Newt wouldn't be awake for another 45 minutes or so, so she figured she had time to take a shower.

Her bathroom was the best built structure in the Glade in Maria's opinion. There wasn't a single crack or whole in the wooden walls, the door was made of a thick, sound wood with sturdy hinges, and included a lock (which Maria was very pleased about) Even the shower and sink had hot water. Maria reminded herself to give Gally a hug for doing such a spectacular job on the bathroom. She took off her pajamas, Newt't t-shirt and a pair of leggings, and got to washing herself. After an amazingly rejuvenating shower she changed into the clothes she had brought with her. today's outfit was a blue button up shorts sleeve, open over a white tank top and a pair of cut-off shorts. She french braided her hair and returned back to her and Newt's room. Newt was just waking up, and he laid in his sleeping bag with his upper half propped up on his elbows. Maria blushed due to the fact that Newt did in fact sleep shirtless. Why was she blushing? She asked herself, this was like the third time she'd seen Newt sans a shirt, and honestly she wasn't complaining.

"Mornin' love" Newt yawned while stretching. "Your hair looks nice" Newt said, his eyes fixated on the intricate braid.  
"Thanks" Maria said cheerfully and sat down on her bed. Maria felt her stomach turn when he called her love. She knew that when he said Love, he didn't really mean much by it. he called her love the same way he called his other friends Mate. Maria didn't know why but whenever he called her Love she instantly smiled.

"So today's the big day" Newt said casually, while throwing on a shirt. "You're gettin a job!"

"Yeah..." Maria said quietly looking down "A job as a slopper I bet" Newt frowned, "Don't say that, I bet you're a shoe in for the cook job, after all cooking should come easy to you since you're a wom-" Maria shot him a look.

"oh _HELL _no, I know you weren't about to make a women belong in the kitchen joke" Maria said, with a mock angry expression. "Newt put his hands up in surrender.

"I'm sorry please don't kill me" He squealed. Maria laughed "You're such a sexist" she muttered. Newt gasped "Me? A sexist? That's preposterous!" Newt smirked. Maria rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Hey for all I know, you secretly are a raging sexist...I don't really know you well enough to tell"

"What are you on about girlie? We live together for shucks sake" Newt replied "You already know about my teddy bear, and you've seen my artwork I'm sure."

Maria shrugged "Yeah but I don't really know much else, I don't know your favorite food for starters"

"You never asked!"

"I'm asking now though" Maria grinned. Newt thought for a second. "Well its probably short cake. Frypan made it once, best bloody thing I've ever ate."

"I'm learning so much about you already" She giggled. Newt smiled back at her, he was happy to finally get to talk to Maria again. He had just been so busy the past week with all of his documenting, he actually tried to sneak away from his responsibilities numerous times, but every time he tried to leave the med-hut to talk to Maria, Alby had stopped him. He really did want to spend time with Maria, and tried as often as he could to get to her. The other day in the map hut with Minho, Newt tried to get out of work early. Minho kept asking him why he wanted to leave so bad, leaving Newt to try to come up with an excuse, but he couldn't lie to his best friend, Minho knew him to well. Eventually Minho was able to get the truth out of him, and when he learned he was going to go see Maria, Minho teased him mercilessly.

"You've known the shucking greenie for like four days man. Don't tell me you already like her" Minho had said. Newt didn't answer him. He looked down and went back to work on the maps.

When he was with Maria, Newt felt calm, as if all of the stress in his body just melted away, he never wanted to stop talking to her, he could have stayed in his room all day just talking to her, but they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Newt didn't open it, he knew it would be Alby, ready to drag him over to the med-hut building.

"Newt get your shank butt out here" Alby called to him from the other side of the door

"Bloody hell" newt muttered under his breath. He turned to Maria, an idea had popped into his mind. "I've gotta run love, but listen. Tomorrow I'm taking a day off, we can spend the day together getting to know each other. Seeyoutommorowtalktoyoulaterbye-" Newt had walked out the door to leave with a very impatient Alby. Maria stayed frozen on the bed...did that just happen. Newt basically invited her on a date "No-not a date- we'll just be hanging out. Guys hang out with each other all the time so this probably won't be any different" She assured herself. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute. She walked out to go get breakfast with a ridiculous smile on her face.

_at breakfast:_

_"_Why are you so happy greenie?" Frypan asked handing her a plate of eggs. Maria blinked, snapping out of her dream like trance. "Oh yeah- I'm just super excited for cooking today" She lied. Frypan smiled.  
"Yeah, I bet you'll do great, just come back here after you finished breakfast and we'll start the tryout." he told her. Maria nodded and then set off to her table.

She sat next to Minho. Over the past week she had talked to Minho more than Newt and Minho wasn't even in the glade 80% of the time. The difference was that Minho actually showed up to meals, while nobody else seemed to. The population of their table had shrunk significantly, with Newt, Alby, and Clint all at the Med-hut.

"You seem Happy" Minho observed when he noticed Maria's smile.

"Just happy to be employed today I guess" she lied again.

"As a slopper maybe.." Minho grinned. He had a way of pushing Maria's buttons, and he enjoyed teasing her very much. Maria rolled her eyes at him.

"Gee thanks. I'm so glad I have your support" Maria said sarcastically, and the two broke out in laughter. "You sure you don't want to be a runner greenie? see what the maze is like?" Maria's eyes widened and she shook her head like mad.

"No way am I going in there" She said. "I hear those grievers at night and I don't think I want to go meet one anytime soon." Minho laughed again, commenting about what a sissy she was, causing her to playfully nudge her. Minho pushed her back. "Watch out greenie, if you keep flirting with me Newt's gonna get jealous" Minho said, but he quickly regretted it. His eyes went wide and he stood up in a hurry. "I've said too much" He dashed away from the table and ran into the maze. Leaving Maria sitting wondering what the hell just happened. She ate the rest of her eggs in silence, not even acknowledging the other keepers at the table.

After breakfast Maria did exactly as she was told, and reported to Frypan.

"Ok greenie, cooking is just about the easiest thing in the world, If you can cut up some food and make a soup, the job is yours" Frypan told her. Maria was delighted to hear how easy her job sounded. Pssh make a soup, she could probably make a soup in her sleep. Maria breathed a sigh of relief, it looks like she wasn't gonna be a slopper after all. Frypan led her over to a counter that had various ingredients on it.

"I'll be back in ten minutes to check your progress. Don't burn the place down." And with frypan left the kitchens, probably to go have some breakfast of his own.

"Ok Maria- let's get cooking." She said out loud and then proceeded to start chopping vegetables. "Frypan was right, this is easy" She told herself as she finished chopping up a carrot, she set it aside and started cutting the other ingredients. Maria had successfully prepared a bowl of chopped carrots, onions, celery and garlic. All that was left was to dice a tomato. Maria looked down at the tomato in her hand, she had grown to really hate the red fruit/vegetable monstrosity ever since Tomato-geddon, but she personally had nothing against the taste, and thought it would make a good addition to the soup. Maria got to chopping the tomato, and was about a quarter of the way done when Frypan walked back into the room.

"Hey greenie how are things going" Frypan greeted as he walked through the door. "Pretty good" Maria answered, still chopping the tomato. Frypan walked up to her to see what she had accomplished so far, peering over her shoulder he stopped in his tracks. "Ummmm Maria are you ok?" he asked with a hint of urgency in his tone. Maria stopped "what are you talking about of course I'm ok" She told him. Frypan frowned "It's just that you're bleeding a lot right now." She turned to chef and scoffed "No silly that's not blood it's just tomato juice" She answered, annoyed that she was distracted from her cooking. Frypan shook his head and led her away from the food.

"No believe me I know what tomato juice looks like, you're hand is covered in blood...from yourself."

"what are you-" Maria couldn't finish her sentence due to a searing pain in her left hand. "WHAT THE-!" she blinked. On her left hand there was a gash from the base of her thumb all the way down to her wrist, which was bleeding profusely. How the hell had she not noticed that?!

"oh...so I am bleeding. would you look at that." Maria said in a monotonous voice, still in shock from the wound. Frypan looked at her calm expression in disbelief. "WELL DOESN'T IT HURT?" He yelled at her.

"Why yes..yes it does" She said with such a calmness, Frypan thought she was lying for a second. "I'm going to leave now" Maria said, and walked out the door to go to the med-hut.

Maria applied pressure to the wound, her calmness had completely diminished and now she was beginning to freak out a little. The bleeding had gone down, but the pain had not. She barged into the med-hut to find it completely empty.

"Hello?" she called out, in response she heard a russeling upstairs, followed by a short out break of screaming. "Ben must be up there" She thought, along with Clint, Jeff, Newt, and Alby. She shuddered at the idea of Ben going through the changing, but then quickly went back to her dilemma of fixing her hand. Maria decided it would be best not to distract the med-jacks from Ben for them only to deal with her minor cut. Maria looked around the bottom floor of the med-hut. There were shelves upon shelves of clearly labeled medicinal products. One shelf was full of various bandages and gauze, another full of pain killers etc. etc. On one of the shelves there was a box full of syringes, all labeled "The cure". Maria knew almost immediately it was the cure for being stung. As she looked around the room she noticed that everything she needed to fix her cut was right in front of her. "Screw the med-jacks" She thought "I'll do it myself."

Maria grabbed a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to use as disinfectant, cotton balls, a roll of gauze, and a bottle of pain killers. She popped one of the small pills in her mouth and swallowed, getting to work on her hand.

The disinfectant stung as she applied it, but she continued on cleaning the wound. Next she very carefully wrapped the gauze around her thumb, palm and wrist, and finished by clamping it in the appropriate place. Maria lifted her hand and admired her _hand_ywork. Happy with what she was able to accomplish. She still had mobility in her fingers, so the makeshift wrap wouldn't interfere that much. It also didn't hurt as much anymore, which she accredited to the pain killer.

"That was impressive" Said a voice to the side of her. Maria shot up and turned to the direction the voice was heard from. She saw Clint, sitting on the stairs with his chin resting on his hands.

"How long were you sitting there" Maria asked, a little peeved that he never offered to help her.  
"I came down to grab some paper towels, then I saw you here, applying the disinfectant to your hand. I also saw you expertly wrap your hand with gauze. When did you learn to do that?"  
"I don't remember learning it, it just seemed like the right thing to do" She shrugged. Clint nodded, somewhat satisfied with her answer. "Can I ask you a few things" Clint said, looking at Maria's hands. Maria nodded cautiously.

"How would you treat a sprained ankle?" Clint asked  
"What does that have to do with anything?" Maria frowned. Clint looked at her expectantly. Maria sighed, thought for a second, and answered.  
"Ummm I'd start by telling the person who sprained it to stay off of that foot... then I'd apply ice to the area, then I'd then wrap the area in gauze for compression, like what I did to my hand." She finished. Clint nodded his head "That's exactly right"  
Maria shrugged- "Um yay for me then I guess, but what does this have-" Clint cut her off, "How would you treat a first degree burn?"  
She looked down at her hand then back up at Clint, "You would have to soak the wound in cold water, then apply an antibiotic to it." She answered. Clint looked at her in shock, "That's correct." Clint asked Maria a few more medical questions, that she had apparently all gotten correct, much to both of their surprises.

"Maria you got every single question right" Clint announced, astonished by the girl in front of him. Maria rolled her eyes, all of this questoning was getting annoying. "Great. Can I go now" She huffed. Clint nodded, "yeah sorry for that..I gotta go suggest something to Alby." Clint dashed back upstairs and Maria left the Med-hut.

_later that day_

Maria was dreading the gathering that was to come, she had failed every try out for every job. "Slopper city here I come" were the words that flew through her mind. She couldn't even make eye contact with Frypan after the event that will be referred to as TOMATO-GEDDON 2.0. "Stupid shucking tomatoes..."She muttered

"Now Love, there's no need to blame the tomato's for your misfortune" Said a comforting British voice behind her. Maria turned and smiled, although it was a little annoying how people kept sneeking up on her.

"Newt!" She grinned, and walked over to her friend, completely dismissing her moment of self-pity" Newt greeted her back "Well if it isn't my favorite girl."  
"Newt I'm the only girl you know"  
"But your still my favorite, you should feel honored right now" He grinned pointing and clicking his tongue at her. Maria rolled her eyes.  
"Wow. I'm your favorite girl! My whole life has been leading up to this moment...I'd like to thank the academy for this stoic honor-" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, but she couldn't finish her acceptance speech because the two broke out in laughter.

"You're impossible" Newt scoffed. Maria smirked, "You're Impossible" she imitated with a very exaggerated British accent. "I DO NOT SOUND LIKE THAT" Newt argued. "I DO NOT SOUND LIKE THAT" Maria mocked again. Newt turned away from her, partially for dramatic effect, but partially to hide his huge smile. "That's it I'm leaving" Newt threatened. Maria's sarcasticness faltered for a second,"aw come don't leave, you just got here." Newt turned back to her and smiled "Well I'm happy to see that you enjoy my company so much, but I actually do have to go, the keepers need to decide on your job" He told her," by the way how did cooking with Frypan work out for you?" Maria didn't answer him, instead she held up her heavily bandaged hand. Newt's face turned to an expression of genuine concern. "Oh my god what happened are you ok?!" Maria nodded, yeah I just had an incident with a tomato" She admitted. "Again?" Newt said to her, recalling tomato-geddon 1.0. "Again" Maria confirmed. Newt laughed, he happy to see that she was ok, "Well I'm sorry about that love but I really do need to go now, I'll find you after the gathering and tell you what we decided on" He waved goodbye and jogged over to where the gathering would take place.

Maria occupied herself by playing with Stink. Being with her dog distracted her from the fact that her friends were all discussing how awful she was at working, and they had probably already decided that she should be doomed to a life of slopping. Maria tried not to think about it, and instead applied herself to helping Stink learn how to roll over.

Stink was finally getting the hang of the new trick when Maria heard an oh so familiar voice call out to her. It was Newt slowly walking up to her. Maria got up to meet him half way, when she saw his disappointing expression on his face. Maria took note of that and prepared for the worst.

"Well?" Maria asked impatiently  
Newt shook his head "Your not a slicer, a track hoe, a builder, a bricknick,or a cook" Newt said with a pained expression. Maria's shoulders slumped. "Im a slopper then," She whispered. Newt shook his head again. "Nope"

Maria frowned. "But slopper is the only job left-" Maria was cut off by clint, who had snuck behind her while Newt and her were talking.

"YOU'RE A MED-JACK" Clint yelled, Shocking Maria so much that she practically jumped into Newt's arms from the surprise. She "reluctantly" pushed herself off of Newt and regained her composure.

"Oh come on Clint, I was gonna say that" Newt whined. Clint grinned cheekily "I couldn't help it" he shrugged. Maria was still confused though. "But I didn't even tryout" She stammered. "You didn't have to" Clint grinned. "I saw what you did in the med-hut, believe me, Me and jeff could use someone like you there if we have to look after Ben all the time. Maria's look of confusion, turned to one of glee. She threw her arms around Clint in a big hug, "Thank you so much Clint!" She said graciously. Clint turned red, and untangled himself from her hug, "Oh shuck it was nothing" he said sheepishly. "I've got to head over to Ben real quick, I'll see you in two days for your first day of work" Clint said to Maria and then headed off.

Maria still had the biggest smile on her face, she couldn't express how happy she was to not me a slopper. She turned to Newt. "Did you have anything to do with this? She questioned. Newt looked up and rocked back and forth on his heels, "Kind of" he began "Clint told me before the gathering started about what you did, he said that if It was me who suggested it to Alby, he would be more likely to say yes so, yeah I had a little to do with this."

Maria beamed from ear to ear. "Ok then you get a hug too" She said and wrapped her arms around Newt. Newt stood still, shocked for a moment, then returned the hug, wrapping his arms around her waist. He pulled his head back slightly and grinned. "Now that you work in the med-hut, and I spend all of time documenting there, we'll be seeing each other a lot more. Maria hadn't even thought of that. This day was just getting better and better, and tomorrow would probably be even better since she would be spending the whole day with Newt. She wondered where they were gonna hang out, yes hang out because it would DEFINITELY not a date Maria told herself.

Maria realized she was still hugging Newt, she retracted her arms and turned her head. Both of them were blushing like mad. "Sooo... she said trying to change the subject, "where are we gonna go tomorrow?" she asked. Newt smirked "It's a surprise."  
"I bet you told Minho, I could always just ask him."  
"Why do you want to ruin the surprise? Newt said defensivly, Maria shrugged "I'm not a big fan of surprises"  
Newt grinned, "well I bet you'll love this one"

**AN Next chapter brings the fluff, you have been warned. so i looked up all of the jobs at the glade, and apparently a "Bricknick" was a job and what they do is instead of building things, they repair things. idk i was just as surprised as you were but its true look it up, anyway I thought that since all the keepers ate together and what not, it would be a perfect opportunity to introduce the keeper of the bricknicks, James, a male OC suggested by PureBloodGirl. Shout out to PureBloodGirl amiright (idk why I made him Irish, he just seemed a little leprachaun-ish). This does not guarantee that I will be using her female OC though so just know that. Anyway thanks for reading and as always, keep on submittin'.**


	9. surprise

**AN ok this next part is not as fluffy as I intended, but DONT WORRY there is still plenty of fluff. I just had to estabish a few things with Maria's backstory first, and in the future things will get fluffier so dont be alarmed**

_*ThisSsSs Paarrttt IssSSS A DReeAAaaMMmMMm*_

_Maria was running down a pure white corridor. Everything from the walls, to the tiled floor had a pearly glow to them. The hallway went on forever it seemed. She wore a bright white, restricting dress, and a white lab coat flapping behind her as she ran. Her hair was in a perfect, uniform bun. Around her neck was a lanyard with the initials W.C.K.D printed on them. After what seemed like ages of running she finally approached her destination. A tall white door with two guards flanking it.  
"You have to let me in, I need to see him right away!" She pleaded.  
The guard shook his head. "He's due for the swipe in 30 minutes, he can't be seeing any visitors right now."  
Maria grasped on the guards collar desperately, angry tears welling in her eyes. "You listen to me you sorry excuse for a bouncer, I don't give a damn about whatever orders you were told to carry out, I am a top scientist for W.C.K.D, therefore making me your superior, now let me in or I swear I will shove a vile of The Flare so far up your-"  
The guard quickly realized that this girl would not take no for an answer, and stepped aside. "Ok fine, go talk to him, but he won't remember you, or anything in half an hour." _

_Maria nodded and barged in the door. Sitting on a lone chair there was a boy her age with a mess of dirty blonde hair, already dressed in his clothes for entering the experiment zone. The boy turned to Maria, his desolate expression turning into a hopeful one.  
"Maria!" The boy said standing up.  
"Newt!" She answered, her voice cracking. "Newt please don't go, you can't go!" She said, throwing her arms around him and crying into his shoulder. The boy held her protectively.  
"I'm so sorry Maria, but I have to. Ava said-" Newt said, his voice cracking slightly as well.  
"I DON'T CARE WHAT AVA SAID. YOU'RE GOING TO FORGET EVERYTHING" She sobbed. "...You're going to forget me..." She said barely above a whisper. Newt let a single tear slide down his cheek.  
"Maria I know what they say about the Swipe, but I don't think it can make me forget you, I've known you forever... We've been through everything together," Newt wiped a tear off of Maria's cheek. Maria choked back more tears, She thought back to when she was five, when she first entered the W.C.K.D facilities. Newt had been the first kid she had befriended, and since then they had been inseparable. They had grown from friends to even more than just. But W.C.K.D had other plans for the two. Maria had always shown promise in the W.C.K.D science facilities, while Newt, from the day he arrived, was meant to be a member of the experiment. They knew the day for them to separate would come, but she never thought it would happen so fast. They were only just teenagers for gods sake, and they were about to rip everything Newt had ever known away from him._

_"Will I ever see you again? what if something bad happens to you in the glade." She whimpered, trying to regain her composure. Newt reassured her. "Maria don't worry, I'll be there for 3 years, they'll get the brain activity they need, they'll make the cure, and then everything will be back to normal."  
Maria nodded her head, desperately wanting to believe him. "What if they send me to group B?  
Newt grabbed onto her shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Ava would never let that happen, You're to goddamn smart, so bloody important, they need you here" He told her, his voice was cracking like crazy.  
Maria tried to steady herself, and keep the horrible thoughts out of her head. "Whatever you do, don't go in the maze, You've seen the terrible things they put in there-"  
"But its the only way out!"  
"Newt you have to listen to me! Please don't go in the maze, I know you won't remember me telling you this, but damnit just don't go. I'm losing you now, but I can't lose you for real." She said clutching on to the side of his face. There was so much panic and fear in her eyes, that it broke Newt's heart to see it like that. Truth was he didn't know if her would see her again, with him losing his memories there was to many things that could go wrong. Newt couldn't stand to see Maria cry, she wasn't being her usual sarcastic self, and he couldn't blame her. All he wanted to do was stop her crying, stop her suffering. So what he did next surprised even him._

_Newt cupped both sides of Maria's face and guided his lips to hers. It was a kiss full of passion and sorrow, full of all of the pent up emotion that the two had been feeling the past week, a kiss that made them forget about their surroundings and what was to come. Maria kissed him back with such a fervor, as if the one, 5 second kiss could possibly replace the three years, if not more, they would be spending apart. Mari broke the kiss and fell once again into Newt's protective arms.  
"Goodbye Newt" She whispered.  
"Goodbye Maria...I love you." He murmured back. The moment was ended by the guard from earlier walking in the door._

_"There's been a change of plans- they want you in the box as soon as possible, so you're getting the swipe now. The guard said to Newt. The boy released Maria, giving her one more reassuring nod, before complying to the guards orders. Newt had been taught all his life that what he would be doing was just, that W.C.K.D was doing the right thing, but oh god it felt so wrong to be leaving his life behind for some stupid experiment._

_The guards left with Newt, leaving Maria in the middle of a holding cell in her tear stained lab coat. Everything had happened so fast. The advice, the goodbyes...the kiss. That was not how she pictured her first kiss to be. Her fist kiss should have been passionate, and romantic. Not a kiss full of sorrow and pain. She didn't even have time to relish in the feeling of Newt kissing her, all she felt was the emptiness in her heart as she watched Newt walk away for the last time._

_She didn't even get to say she loved him back._

*EEeeennNNnNDDddddd OOOooFFfffff DDDDrrrRReeEEEEaaaaAAAAMMMMMmmmmm*

Maria shot up in bed, unable to process the dream she had just had. It seemed so real, so in detail that it was more like a memory then a dream. Maybe it was a memory...NO, that's impossible, she had no memories. Maria put her hand to her forehead, uggh maybe she was hallucinating from losing all of that blood yesterday. That was the only logical reason, she told herself. But did that explain why she still felt the familiar empty feeling in her chest, so intense that it almost hurt. She turned to Newt, still sleeping in his "bed", and almost immediately the sorrow she felt subsided. Was Maria coming down with an illness, why was she feeling all of these weird emotions at once. She didn't feel sick, she felt perfectly fine, but what the hell did she just dream about? She wondered.

Her watch told her it was 6:30, she groaned, she hated waking up early. The sun probably wasn't even up yet. She stood up and stretched, letting out a yawn. She thought it was odd that Stink wasn't in the room, he was there when she went to bed, and the door was shut. How had a 20 lb dog without aposable thumbs get out of a room with a shut door. Her fixation on the where a bouts of her dog distracted her from questioning the dream she just had, which was already fading quickly in her mind. In ten minutes she will have forgotten it almost completely.

"Mornin love" Newt said, his voice heavy with sleep. "What time is it" he said groggily.  
"Early" She answered frankly, walking over to get her clothes for the day.  
"How specific!" he responded. The two broke out in smiles over the sarcasm.

"So today we're hanging out right" Maria asked.  
"You know it."  
Maria grinned and drew the curtain to change. She wanted to look nice for her date-NOT DATE...her day with Newt. She chose her white peasant top, and skinny jeans, completing the look with a fishtail braid down her shoulder.

"I had no bloody idea there was so many ways to braid hair" Newt said jokingly, putting on his clothes for the day as well. Maria shrugged. "what can I say, I'm a talented girl"  
"Whatever you say Love" Newt retorted and the two laughed again.

"so what are we doing today?" Maria asked, still curious about her surprise.  
"What part of "its a surprise" do you not understand?" Newt retaliated.  
"Hey the last surprise I got, I was put in a box on the way to this god forsaken place, so forgive me for not being super on board with surprises"  
Newt scoffed "I promise I'm not gonna put you into a bloody box, this surprise will be fun"  
"How can I believe you?" She teased.  
"You are so bloody difficult" He scoffed once more, "and don't you dare mock my accent again" he glared at her.  
"Ok I won't... Let's just go get some _bloody_ breakfast" She smirked. Newt swore under his breath and walked over with her to breakfast.

_*At breakfast*_

Maria and Newt stood in line for breakfast, Frypan had made French Toast, which was a very rare treat at the glade. Frypan tried not to make eye contact with her when he handed her the plate of food, while Maria stammered out an apology.  
"I'm sorry for bleeding all over the vegetables" She quickly told him. Frypan shook his head but had a small smile.  
"Its fine. Anyway it's a good thing you're a med-jack now, so you can fix the injuries instead of inflict them" Frypan said. Maria laughed. "Yeah...I guess you're right."

They walked over to the table and sat down in their appropriate seats. The rest of the table all gasped in surprise when they saw Newt sit down.  
"Well shuck Newt, how nice of you to finally join us" Minho joked, referring to the fact that Newt hardly showed up to eat with the other keepers. Minho continued, "Yesterday was the first time I'd seen you all week at the gathering. I've been talking to James more than I've been talking to you, and James never talks to anyone!" Minho said, with an annoyed tone.  
"Hey don't drag me into this" James snapped from the other side of the table. Maria faltered for a moment, Minho seemed generally pissed off with Newt, maybe Maria would be the same way if her best friend had practically neglected her for the past week.

Newt was taken back "What are you on about mate?"  
Minho glared, "forget it, have fun on your date, shank" he huffed, walked away from the table, and stormed into the maze. The table stayed in stunned silence.

Winston broke the tension. "**Cough. Cough Drama queen. Cough**" The slicer joked, earning a laugh from the rest of the table. Newt didn't laugh though, he shot an angry look in the direction of the maze.  
"Newt is everything ok?" Bill asked. Newt snapped out of his trance and nodded. "yeah it's fine."

The rest of breakfast went without interruption, and when they finished Newt had dragged Maria out to the center of the glade. He had snapped out of his despondent behavior and was now back to his animated self.  
"You ready for the surprise? Newt asked, playfully nudging her shoulder.  
"It depends. Should I be scared right now?" Maria asked back. Newt rolled his eyes. "Just shut up and put this on" He grinned, and handed her a bandanna fashioned to be a blindfold. Maria looked at him like he had gone crazy.  
"Is kidnapping me the surprise?" She practically shouted. Newt made an exasperated face, "What is wrong with you Maria, I'm not gonna kidnap you"  
"Then is this some wierd sexual thing where you blind fold your victims" Maria asked, cooperating though and putting on the blind fold.  
"Why would you even say that, you are so bloody weird" Newt said while shaking his head.  
"You may have a point, but no matter, now hurry up and kidnap me so we can get this day over with." Maria said while tying the blindfold around her. Newt sighed, and gingerly took her arm to direct her over to the surprise. "You think you're so funny don't you?"  
"Yeah... I do"

_1o minutes later!1!11!_

Maria had been repeating "are we there yet" for the past 10 minutes, and it was getting on Newt's nerves. He was thankful that they had arrived at their destination before Maria literally drove him insane.  
"Ok Ok we're there" Newt finally said.  
"Yippee, can I take my blindfold off now?" She asked, but she didn't wait for his answer. She yanked the covering off and observed where she was. They were in a corner of the glade, she could clearly see where the two walls met, both covered in ivy. The ground around them consisted of overgrown grass, and sparatic patches of tall flowers. In a tiny clearing newt had placed a blanket down and left a picnic basket and a backpack. The whole set up was breathtakingly beautiful. Maria raised her eyebrows in shock.  
"Wow Newt...this is...impressive." She stammered. Newt could swear he heard disappointment in her voice. He slumped his shoulders, "You don't like it do you. I mean I know its not much but-"  
"No Newt I love it, I'm just surprised is all, I didn't think you were capable of successfully arranging anything, but this, this is...Wow." She turned and smiled at him. Newt grinned back. "Ah so would you say you like this surprise?" He chided. Maria smirked at him. "I guess you could say that.." She admitted.  
Newt clasped his hands together in victory "I knew you would" He cheered. Newt lead Maria over to the blanket and they sat down.  
"So Newt, what do you have in store for this day o' fun?" Maria began.  
Newt chuckled. "Well- to be honest I didn't plan this far, so I just grabbed a bunch of klunk and we'll see what occupies our time."  
Maria nodded "Improv- nice, what do you have first?"  
Newt shrugged and tossed her the backpack. "You pick"

Maria glanced in the backpack and made a selection from the various options. She ultimently took out a piece of paper and a pencil. Newt raised an eyebrow at her. "You're going to write something? that doesn't seem very fun."  
"No you idiot, I want you to draw something" Maria told him. Newt still looked skeptical, this was not what he had in mind for the day, but he obliged. "What do you want me to draw?"  
Maria put her hands on her hips and turned her chin up, "Me!" She said proudly. Newt couldn't resist the urge to laugh at the ridiculous pose Maria had pulled. "ok fine...But don't expect it to be that great" He added  
"Oh Newtie you don't have to be so modest about it, when I was going through you're things I saw what you drew, they were shucking amazing." Maria encouraged. Newt squinted at her, "Stop going through my things, and stop calling me Newtie."  
"Quit complaining," Maria chimed, she then struck a sarcastically heroic pose, "now make sure when you draw me, you focus on my good side"

Newt concentrated on drawing Maria, he wanted to get every detail of her face right. While he was sketching he and Maria were still able to talk to each other, and tell stories. Definitely learning a lot about each other. Newt learned that Maria's favorite color was Plum purple, her favorite food was french toast, she _really _hated tomatoes, and she liked to dance (of course he already knew that though). Maria didn't really know that much about herself, on account of not having any memories, so Newt entertained her by making up a fake past for her.  
"I bet you were a secret agent before they sent you up here" Newt suggested "the government probably sent you to the glade as punishment for plotting to assassinate the president."  
Maria laughed. "Yeah that sounds about right, and you were probably the heir to the throne of Great Britain, but you're evil twin did away with and sent you here." They both turned to look at each other and burst out laughing.  
"Stop moving, your making it hard to draw you." Maria sighed and went back to sitting perfectly still. "Ok your Majesty" She muttered.

A long time had passed and Maria was beginning to grow impatient. "Whats taking so long Newt?"  
"Hey you have a lot of freckles on your face so I need to get them all right." Newt told her. Maria stared at him in disbelief.  
"You're drawing every single one of my freckles? That's going to take like a million years" She exclaimed. "how many have you drawn so far?" Newt paused.  
"387" He estimated. Maria shook her head once more and grinned. "Ok I think I'll live if you happen to miss a couple of freckles, let me see" She grabbed the paper out of Newts reluctant hands and held it up.

Maria had only seen her true reflection a couple of times in windows and puddles of water, she had a pretty basic knowledge of what she looked like, and the girl Newt had drawn was not her. It looked a lot like Maria, don't get her wrong, but the picture she held in front of her looked like Maria without any of her flaws. Her face looked sharper, and not as chubby as she thought her face looked, her nose was small and perfectly proportioned to the rest of her face, unlike the nose Maria thought she had, which was large and flat. Even Maria's hair, which at the moment was frizzy and messy, was drawn to look silky and perfect. "Do I really look like this..." she whispered to Newt, blown away by the beautiful drawing in front of her.  
Newt blushed and rubbed the back of his head uh yeah... at least to me you do." Maria smiled at him and got up to hug him, "Its amazing" She informed him. Newt laughed awkwardly, "really because I feel like I didn't put enough shading in the eyes and-" Maria hushed him  
"Shut up it's amazing and I'm keeping it forever" She said sternly. Newt smiled and nodded appreciatively.

They ate a late lunch that consisted of two ham sandwiches, some fruit, and for dessert, two of Frypan's cookies, that Newt may or may not have stolen from his secret stash.

"so Newt" Maria began, taking a sip of her cider, "what was the glade like before I got here?"  
Newt thought for a moment, "well, besides being 100% male, there was also a lot more fighting, like I don't know why but before you showed up Gally used to be getting into a fight every other day, but now it's alot more peaceful I guess." He concluded. Maria tried to think of a life at the glade where everybody just fought all the time, but she couldn't imagine it, most of the guys just seemed to nice.

Maria asked another question, curious to know more about life in the glade "Were you always second in command?"  
Newt chuckled "No, oddly enough I used to be a runner, before I got into a leadership position." Maria paused "How could you have been a runner when you have a limp?" She asked without thinking. She quickly cupped her hands over her mouth and apologized. "Oh my god I am so sorry, that was so rude, I'm sorry." She gasped. Newt smiled weakly. "No it's ok, that was a reasonable question" He said. "...I didn't always have this limp"  
"do you...want to talk about it or..." Maria asked hesitantly. Newt was about to shake his head no when he stopped himself, it's not like it was some big bloody secret, everyone else already knows, so whats the harm if Maria knows, he told himself. Newt began to tell the story, refusing to make eye contact with Maria.  
"Before you showed up, back when I had just been here for about a year, life wasn't that great. When you're a runner you see some shit that you want to forget, and we had just had our first glader go through the changing. Things were horrible, I couldn't think straight...and I just felt like I wanted to give up. So I did what any tragically depressed person would do, I climbed to the top of the north wall, and... I jumped. There was a moment before I stepped off however, a moment where I looked down at the glade from that high up and everything seemed ok, and I wanted to step back and not jump,but it was to late...That moment before I jumped will forever be seared into my brain. I lived, miraculously enough, but I had twisted my bloody leg something awful. Clint tried to fix my leg but... It never healed quite right, and that's how I got this limp." He finished, his heart heavy from recalling that fateful day.  
"Oh my god Newt... I had no idea" She whispered. She looked down with a sad expression. Something about that story had seemed so familiar to her...

"So now I guess you know everything about me" Newt said, trying to change the mood of this now very depressing conversation. Maria was still dwelling on how eerily familiar Newt's story sounded to her, but she removed herself from her trance and answered. "yeah... I guess I do." Maria hadn't noticed, but somehow throughout the day, she had shifted a lot closer to Newt. If she were so lean forward their foreheads would collide basically.

"Hey Newt?"  
"Yes love?"  
"Do you ever get the feeling that...that we knew each other before all of this" She said quietly, wandering if Newt would think what she just asked was crazy.  
To her surprise, and delight, Newt nodded his head adamantly. "I was thinking the same exact thing."  
She smiled, "So I'm not crazy?"  
"No you most definitely are not" Newt responded. He smiled back. He reached his hand out and tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ears, his hand lingered for just a moment.

Their eyes locked, both of them realizing how close they are now. She could feel his breath on her. She hadn't even realized that she was leaning forward, it was almost magnetic. With little warning Newt took it upon himself to close the distance between them. Their lips met. It was slow and sweet. _Romantic_ is what came to Maria's mind, just like how she wanted her first kiss to be. Maria's lips parted ever so slightly, allowing their lips to mold together. Newt's hands snaked around to cup both sides of her face, while Maria's arms locked around his neck and met at the base of his head. What lasted for what was only a few seconds, felt like an eternity to Newt, a moment that he never wanted to end.

_*Meanwhile in Maria's mind*_

_Omygodohmygodohmygod we're kissing, this feels so right, ohmygod did he kiss me or did i kiss him? oh my god I don't even care this is amazing somebody pinch me._

_*Meanwhile in Newt's mind*_

_HOLY FUCKING SHIT. BLOODY HELL WE'RE KISSING, WE'RE KISSING! IS SHE KISSING ME BACK? YEAH I THINK SHE IS KISSING ME BACK! SHE TOTALLY FEELS THE SAME WAY!THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY MISERABLE LIFE THAT I CAN ACTUALLY REMEMBER!_

_*Meanwhile in a nearby bush where Winston and Jeff are totally spying on Maria and Newt*_

Oh my god Winston what's happening I cant see? Jeff whispered to his friend"

Ohmygodohmygod Jeff they're kissing they're totally kissing"Winston exclaimed

"No. Way! Oh my god they are soooo cute together." Jeff cooed.

"I knew they were going to be a couple, they are just so perfect together" Jeff sighed.

"I know right!ugghh they are so my OTP right now" Winston squealed

"Shhh they'll hear you"

"Sorry I got excited."

_ok that was the last "meanwhile" back to the story already._

Maria slowly broke the kiss, trying to make it last as long as possible. She opened her eyes to Newt's stupidly wide grin, which she was also sporting at the moment.  
"That was...That was pleasant" Maria said, trying to catch her breath. Newt nodded his head "That was bloody spectacular." He finally said. Maria laughed, before leaning in to give him a quick peck on his lips once more. She would have kissed him again but she froze when she heard what sounded like a little girl squealing from a nearby bush.  
"What was that?" She wondered. Newt shrugged  
"Probably just a squirrel or something." Newt concluded.

Newt smiled and stood up, helping Maria up to. He grabbed the back pack and the two walked back to the rest of the glade in silence, hand in hand."If anyone asks, say that we spent the day documenting wild life, that sounds like something I would do" Newt informed Maria. She nodded in agreement.

At dinner all of the boys were slightly put off by how happy Newt seemed, normally he looked bored, or stressed out, but now he looked like he had just won a million dollars.  
"Alright Newt why are you so shucking happy?" Alby asked him, he was getting creeped out by his unrelenting smile.  
Newt cleared his throat "Oh no reason just-umm squirrels...and yeah" He stuttered. Alby looked at him puzzled. "okaaay I'll just pretend that that was an actual response so you don't make a complete idiot of yourself again."  
Newt blushed, "Sorry I uhh- I found a shoe that I had lost...in the forest...and I'm really happy about that" he lied. The guys all looked at him like he was insane but didn't say anything else. When nobody was looking he shot Maria a wink, making her blush, and giggle like a little girl.  
Zart looked over at her "Have you gone crazy too? Why are you shucking giggling all of the sudden."  
Maria froze- "Oh I'm...just really happy that Newt found his shoe...yeah I'm happy for him."She said incredibly unconvincingly.

The rest of the table murmured something about how weird the two were, but Winston smiled to himself because _he knew_ what was going on between the two of them.

_Newt and Maria's room: 10:30 pm._

Maria lay on her bed in the room, Staring up at the ceiling, still thinking of earlier that day. Questions still burning in the back of her mind.  
"Psst. Newt. Are you still awake?" Newt rubbed his eyes, and sat up. "Yeah sort of...what do you want?"  
Maria hesitated "...We're still friends right?"  
"Of course we're still friends! what kind of question was that?"  
Maria shook her head "No, I mean like are we friends or are we friends or are we _FrIeNdS_? She asked, trying to find the right words, but feeling like she was failing.  
Newt was completely clueless. What was she talking about? But then realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Oh I get it! uhh do you want to be _FrIeNdS?_ Newt asked Maria paused and shook her head  
"I think that I just want to be friends...for now, I just think that if we became _FrIeNdS, _then the guys would find out, and it would make things...different."  
Newt nodded, somehow understanding what Maria was saying despite the "code" like phrases she was using. Deep down he wanted to be _FrIeNdS, _but he knew that she was right. "Yeah...Yeah I agree." Newt said.

"yeah. Friends but like really good friends" Maria said.  
Newt grinned, "couldn't have said it better myself. 

**AN: plot twist with winston amiright? lol so I added in a little bit of Maria's backstory, and will be incorporating more. TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY FOR OC'S SO SUBMIT WHATEVER OC'S YOU WANT BUT THEY BETTER BE EITHER IN MY INBOX OR IN THE REVIEWS BY 11:59 PM MONDAY FEB. 16TH. also submit everything else to. by thnx for reading love ya bye.**


	10. ANNOUNCEMENTS (NOT A NEW CHAPTER)

**THE WINNER OF THE OC CONTEST IS ARTICSUNKEYS WITH HER OC: CLEO**

**Everybody sent in really awesome origonal characters, and it was my pleasure to read about everyone of them so dont feel bad. ArticSunkeys' submission was very unique, and their character interested me a lot which is why I picked her. Not to say that all of your character's were not unique, all of them were awesome, and big thanks to all who submitted.**

**With ArticSunkeys permission, Cleo's name will be changed to Caroline in the story, after st. caroline, because (fun fact) all of the females in the maze runner are based off of Religious figures (ex: teresa=mother teresa) the girls are not based off of scientists. ArcticSunkeys has PM'd me with her approval.**

**OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS**

**I sprained my finger! its really awkward to type with a splint so instead of my incredibly frequent updates, instead they will be a little more spaced out. sorry.**

**I'm still accepting male oc's btw. The guy oc's will obviously be background characters, but if you want them included just submit one**

**I'm only accepting suggestions for the storyline/plot via PM now. **


	11. Ben the shucking lunatic

The next morning Maria walked down to breakfast with Newt. They made a pact not to tell anyone what happened the night before.

"That means you can't tell Minho." She said sternly. Newt faltered but nodded in agreement.

Maria sighed and sat down at the table. Maria genuinely liked Newt, she couldn't describe it but whenever she was with him she felt comfortable. He gave her this feeling of security, but Maria couldn't decipher why something was different. Deep down, something felt…off.

Why did she feel this way? The other day she was blushing and giggling with Newt, now she wanted to be away from him. What she really needed was some time to think.

She fought back the mixed emotions overcoming her mind. The kiss happened too soon, she thought. She was stupid to be so vulnerable. She trusted Newt, but what if the other gladers found out. She worked too hard to get what little respect she had at the glade, and she couldn't have that all go away just because a rumor had started that she was Newt's bimbo.

"Maria are you ok?" Clint asked, looking at the girl deep in thought sitting across from him.

"Oh yeah…totally." Maria answered. She could feel Newt staring at her, probably shooting her a concerned expression, but she didn't turn to look at him.

"Ready for your first day as an official med-jack?" Clint asked, changing the subject. Maria sat straight up, she completely forgot about that. Her first day of work!

"You bet your shucking ass I'm ready!" She answered, glad to have something to look forward to for the day.

_7 days later._

Being a Med-Jack was incredibly stressful for Maria. There weren't many patients to be attended to, but when there were, Maria was the one who had to deal with them. Clint and Jeff spent every minute upstairs with Ben, who spent his time either unconscious or thrashing about violently. There was no in between.

Maria enjoyed her work. She got to see Newt a lot, and they spent lunch breaks together most days. They had still acted friendly with each other, and there wasn't any more kissing to be done, but there was always something lingering in the air between the two of them. Both of them knew they had feelings for each other, but neither said a word on the topic.

She saw Gally many times throughout her first week of employment. As it turns out the builders were constantly in danger of getting minor injuries on the job, and most of the builders made at least three trips to the med-hut in her first week.

_The present_

"What did you do this time Gally?" Maria asked when she noticed the builder entering the med-hut for the fifth time that week.

"Sliced my shucking finger." He said with a pained expression holding up his pointer finger with a large cut running down it. Maria ran up to him to observe the finger that was steadily trickling blood. She carefully examined the wound to determine how to treat it.

"Well I don't think you'll need stitches, but I'll have to clean it before wrapping it." She concluded.

Gally sighed impatiently, "I know you're doing your best and all, but can we speed this up, I was in the middle of building the edition to the homestead, and I don't trust those shanks who I left in charge, they've probably shucked everything up by now."

"Don't worry Gally, this'll take less than a minute." Maria told him. In seven days Maria had become quite skilled at doctoring up wounds quickly. The first day she began work, Clint told her everything she needed to know, as well as how to treat certain injuries. When Maria wasn't treating a patient, she was practicing the simple things on herself, such as applying wraps and bandages.

Maria had disinfected Gally's wound and wrapped it up in a minute and forty five seconds. A record time.

"Nice work girlie." Gally complimented, admiring his bandaged finger. "You've only been at work a week and you're already twice as good at doctoring as that shank Jeff." He told her. Maria beamed at the compliment, and nodded in thanks.

"No problem, just do me a favor and stop hurting yourself you clumsy shank." She ordered. Gally waved goodbye and went back to building, leaving Maria alone once more on the bottom floor of the med-hut. She was about to sit down and relax when she heard a terrible noise upstairs. It was a horrible shrieking noise followed by a series of loud thuds and crashing noises. Maria froze. She had heard plenty of terrible sounds from upstairs, but this was the worst one yet. Clint had given her very specific instructions to never go upstairs. Green Beans weren't allowed to see the changing.

The horrible rattling continued, getting so intense that the whole med-hut began to shake. The contents of the shelves began to shift and fall onto the floor below.

"CLINT…WHAT'S GOING ON UP THERE?" She called up the stairs. The only response was another terrible shriek.

"Clint? Jeff? Newt? Is everything ok?" She shouted once more. Another yell from upstairs was heard, only this time it sounded exactly like… Clint! Maria ran upstairs disregarding Clint's warnings and barged in the door. The scene in front of her was shocking to say the least.

First she saw Jeff, slumped unconscious against the far wall with a large purple bruise protruding from his forehead. Next she saw Ben. Ben looked more alien than human covered in bulging blue veins, altering his skin pigment and distorting his features. He was like something straight out of Maria's nightmares. Ben's arms were being held down by Newt and Alby, but they weren't strong enough. Ben broke free from their embrace and wrapped his hands around Clint's neck. Newt tried desperately to pry Ben's hands off of Clint, but to no avail, meanwhile Clint was sputtering and gasping for air. He was clawing at Ben's hands and flailing his body sporadically to free himself, Ben was too strong though.

"BEN, BEN STOP!" Maria screamed, it was useless though, Ben wasn't human right now, and he wasn't going to listen.  
It almost looked like Ben had gotten bored of nearly suffocating Clint, and he casually threw the unconscious boy to the side, as if he were a piece of trash. Ben moved on to his next target: Newt.

Ben immediately punched Newt right in his eye. He kicked him square in the stomach and sent him flying back against the wall. Alby tried to counter Ben's advances on Newt, but Ben merely pushed him aside, shoving him into a shelve that lined the wall.

"Maria!" Alby gasped, noticing Maria in the doorway staring in horror. "Use the syringe." He said and pointed a crooked finger at a box next to the door. In the box were several medical syringes that Maria was unsure what they contained. She looked in panic at the scene in front of her. Clint and Jack had been knocked out, Alby was stumbling trying to stand up after being knocked so hard into a shelving unit he broke it. Ben was about to land another blow on Newt's head.

She grabbed one of the syringes out of the box. The box itself was crudely labeled "Shutdown."

"Shut down?" She asked urgently. "Shut down for what?" There was no answer, instead Ben had grabbed Newt by the collar and violently smashed his head into the wall.

"JUST USE THE SHUCKING MEDICINE!" Alby yelled at her.  
She didn't know what the medicine did, but she listened to him. Ben was too busy wailing on Newt to notice Maria charging behind him. She jumped onto his back, distracting him from beating up Newt. Maria knew he could probably just throw her off his back and knock her out with one punch, so she worked quickly. She stabbed the needle into Ben's neck and pressed down. It's probably best not to mention that Maria was crying the whole time she was executing this maneuver. She had just watched a walking zombie-boy beat up four of her friends.

The serum worked almost instantly. As soon as it entered his blood stream all of his muscles went slack, and he collapsed to the floor. His body spas med a few times before he finally went still. A tear crept down Maria's cheeks at that point. She was hyperventilating as she stood over the unconscious boy in front of her.

Newt was not unconsciously thankfully. Getting beaten up my Ben had left him with a black eye, his lip was bleeding, and he had a large bruise on the back of his head. It took a minute for his eyes to focus after what felt like his brain had just exploded in his skull.

He shakily stood up, along with Alby, and walked over to Ben lying on the ground.

"Is he dead?" Maria whimpered. Alby shook his head.

"No, what you gave him was called The Shutdown. He's not dead, but he won't be awake for a good couple days." Alby told her. Alby was bleeding quite profusely from his nose, but he didn't acknowledge it.

"What just happened? Why did Ben look like that? Why was he trying to kill you guys?" Maria asked, desperate for answers. Newt looked at Alby, as if to ask for permission.

"Ben was going through the changing, what happens when you get stung by a griever… This was the most violent case yet. Usually the infected just run scream and try to hurt themselves, but this is the first time we've had someone try to kill us." Newt explained. Maria listened, all the while still looking in horror at Ben.  
"Oh shuck! What about Clint and Jeff?" Newt turned to the two med-jacks. Maria was the first to rush over to them and check to see if they were ok.

"They're still alive." She told Newt and Alby. "They're just knocked out, and probably concussed." She concluded.

"Help me drag them to the beds." She ordered. "The beds" was the room next to where "the changing room" was. It was basically just a place for the ill to rest where the rest of the gladers couldn't bother them.

Maria took charge of the situation, since she was the med-jack.

"Get me some ice-packs and bandages." She demanded. The guys obeyed and were back with the things she asked in minutes.

"They should be awake in a few hours." She said after treating them to the best of her abilities. She slumped her shoulders and sat down on the bed opposite to them. She put her head in her hands and groaned. The past hour and a half had been a nightmare for Maria. She was constantly stressing over Clint and Jeff on whether or not they were ok. She couldn't believe what had happened earlier that day. She needed a minute alone to gather her thoughts and get out her frustrations.

Newt and Alby stood awkwardly in the door way, watching Maria go through the stages of grief. Alby never knew what to do in these situations, comforting people wasn't his strong suit.

"Alby, you should go get dinner…I'll deal with her." Newt said. Alby nodded and walked off, Leaving Newt and Maria as the only two conscious people in the room.

"You did good." He told her, slowly approaching where she was sitting. Maria looked up at Newt, only to dejectedly place her head back down.

"What's going to happen to Ben?" She asked  
Newt sighed, "When he wakes up we'll have to banish him. He broke the rules."  
"But I doubt he was thinking straight" Maria argued, "You're just gonna toss him into the maze once he wakes up?" Newt only gave her a pained expression.

Maria sighed, she knew the answer to that question. She shifted over on the bed and patted the space she had just moved from, inviting Newt to sit next to her. He obliged and plopped down next to her.

"I hate this place." Maria muttered.

"Yeah the med-hut is pretty depressing." Newt said.  
"No. I mean I hate the glade, and the maze, and the people who sent us here." She spat. Newt tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she shook him off. She could see he was hurt by her gesture but she went on ranting.

"I HATE THIS PLACE, WHY AM I THE ONLY GIRL AMONG 40 SHUCKING BOYS? WHY IS EVERYTHING AROUND HERE TRYING TO KILL US? WHY ARE WE EVEN HERE?" She seethed. In moment of pure anger she grabbed a glass sitting on a side table and flung it against a wall. I shattered, sending shards of glass in every direction.

"Maria calm down." Newt said forcefully, surprising Maria grabbing her shoulder and turning her towards him, not letting her shake him off this time.

"You don't think every shank here asks that bloody question every shucking day?" He hissed. "You've been here for almost a month, I thought you would have been used to it by now." Maria refused to look him in the eye.

"Feeling sorry for yourself won't get you anywhere. All it gave me was a bloody limp." He uttered. Maria froze, her heart broke after hearing his last sentence. What business did she have throwing a little pity party for herself when Newt had actually been through so much worse?

"I'm sorry." She whispered, "I have no business whining over this, I was just being dramatic." Maria apologized.

"You don't need to apologies." Newt said. "We both know this situation isn't ideal."

The room fell silent, all that was to be heard was the jagged breathing coming from Jeff on the other side of the room.

"Do you remember that day from a week ago?" Newt asked, breaking the silence after five minutes.

"If you're talking about…_that_ day…then yeah, of course." She answered

"We just haven't really talked about it since…" He said tentatively

"What do you want to talk about? I mean we kissed if that's what you've been referring to."

"I'm not really sure, but it's all I've been thinking about all week." Newt admitted. "I've been bloody confused about it, but you acted like it never happened…Do you regret it? Did it mean anything to you?" Newt wasn't being particularly accusational, instead his voice sounded unsure.

Maria froze, for a while she thought she had regretted it. "Of course it meant something to me… It's just that… well it was really sudden and… why are you bringing this up?" She snapped.

"Because I don't get you Maria." Newt started, "You're basically unreadable. You're sarcastic, and blunt, and at times you can just be so emotionless sometimes." His voice heightened, "And whenever you let some emotion slip, it's like an outburst of all of those bloody feelings at once. Like just now, you broke a shucking glass, but when you came into the glade you barely shed any tears. What's up with that? I know you must like me to some degree, because you spend all of your shucking time with me, but do you actually like me. You can't just kiss a shank and act like it never happened." He ranted.

Deep down, Maria knew he was right. She had trouble showing her feelings, and whenever she did, it was like a waterfall of emotions all at once. She thought back to the time she sliced her hand, she didn't even blink at the bleeding cut, but she was about to break down crying over stabbing Ben with a syringe. She cursed at herself at being so inconsistent, but she couldn't just change, it was who she was. She detested the remarks Newt had made.

"Are you mad at me because you can't read me like a shucking book?" She glared. She knew he was right, but this wasn't what she wanted to hear right now."

"I mad that you kissed me and then started treating me like nothing happened, as if I were your brother or something. And look I can't even tell how you're feeling right now. Are you upset? Or angry? Both? I don't bloody know?"

Maria stood up, here it comes, the emotional waterfall: "WELL SORRY IM SO SHUCKING INCONVIENT FOR YOU, IM NOT GONNA ACT LIKE SOME GIRLY LITTLE PIXIE JUST FOR YOUR CONVIENCE. AND I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT THE DUMB KISS. I LIKED IT OK, I LIKED THE KISS. I LIKE YOU TOO NEWT. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED? A CONFESSION? She screamed.

"I DON'T KNOW MAYBE I DID WANT THAT. I LIKE YOU TOO MARIA, AND I BET YOU KNEW THAT, BECAUSE FOR SOME REASON I'VE BEEN WAY TOO BLOODY OPEN WITH YOU. BUT AT LEAST I MAKE AN EFFORT TO TELL YOU THINGS, IT DOESN'T HURT TO SHOW SOME BLOODY EMOTION SOMETIMES." He ranted, not even noticing Maria said she liked him back.

"YOU WANT EMOTION, WELL I'LL GIVE YOU SOME SHUCKING EMOTION." Maria shouted, she shut her eyes and leaned into Newt. She grabbed him forcefully by the collar and smashed her lips onto his. The kiss was fiery and angry and passionate, full of Newt's unrequited feelings, and full of Maria's repressed ones. She put as much emotion as she could, trying to convey her message. Meanwhile Newt's eyes were still open, wide as can be looking amazed at the girl whose lips were on his. He wasted no time in kissing back, deepening the kiss. He brought one hand to the side of her waist, and the other to the back of her head. Slowly, the kiss died down in anger, but not in rhythm. The pace became slow, and sensual, and Maria parted her lips just the tiniest bit to allow Newt a small passage. They continued on for two minutes like that, locked in each other's kissing embrace, when naturally it seems, they were interrupted.

"I don't know what the shuck I've just woken up to, but I'm guessing I have died and that I am in Hell." Said a bitter voice from the bed on the other side of the room. Clint.

"What are you doing up?" Maria yelped shoving Newt off of the bed and onto the floor, she stood up hurriedly. Newt groaned from his impact with the floor.

"Oh I'm sorry, did me waking up from my coma interrupt your stupid make-out session? Clint snapped.

Maria didn't say anything, all she could do was look down and blush. Newt on the other hand looked like he was about to implode from the embarrassment.

"I just thought you wouldn't be awake for a couple hours." She muttered. Clint rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I bet a couple of hours would have been more than enough time to do what you were planning on huh Newt? The annoyed Med-Jack said. Suddenly, Clint turned a violent shade of green, he tried to utter out a few more sarcastic remarks before he turned over and bed and threw up into awaiting garbage can.  
"What the shuck?" He sputtered.

"You have a pretty bad concussion." Maria informed him. "So you need to rest for a few days."

"Great I finally get some vacation days around her." He sniggered.

"Now can you two go bang somewhere else, I'd like to take a nap now." Clint said to them.

"I swear I'd punch you in the face if your brain wasn't so shucked up." Newt muttered. Maria tried to help Clint by giving him some food, but he shooed her away, ushering her out of the door along with Newt.

The two stood quietly in front of the door that had just been slammed on them. They started laughing, _laughing_ because it was shucking hilarious what just happened. Sure it was embarrassing, but it was still pretty funny.

The laughter died down and Newt turned to Maria, an optimistic smile on his face, "You kissed me." He said flatly.

Maria chuckled, "uh yeah. I did."

"You don't regret it do you?" He said cautiously, but still smiling.

Maria grinned, "Nope!" She said popping the P.

Newt smiled back, "Wanna do it again?" he said out of the blue. Maria nodded breathlessly. She stood on her tip toes to reach Newt's lips, and they had just grazed lips when they heard a loud intruding cough from behind them.

"Oh for shuck sake" Newt muttered.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever the shuck that was?" Minho began, "But what the shuck happened here? I heard a lot of yelling., the room's a wreck, Ben is literally knocked out on the floor, Alby's walking around with a bloody nose, and I walk up here to see you to about to suck faces. I leave for six hours and everything's gone to klunk.

Newt sighed. "It's a long story, but Ben's being banished as soon as he wakes up. He tried to kill us all.

"Oh." Was all Minho could say. "He wasn't great friends with Ben, but they were runners together. They had discussed the maps together, and now he was losing a guy. Now only Minho and one other guy, Louis, would be running the maze. It took a moment for it to process, but Minho nodded. "Rules are rules." He muttered.

"Ok, I can accept Ben gone, but what was that shucking Kiss Newt. You told me that she didn't like you like that." Minho continued. Maria shot Newt a confused Newt, who just smiled a little too innocently and shrugged.

"Maria and I are really good friends." Newt grinned.

Minho looked from Newt, then to Maria, then back at Newt. "Good friends my ass, just come to dinner you two. A slopper will come and clean this shucking pig sty."

Maria sat a little too close to Newt at dinner, but all though all of the guys noticed, none of them said a word. They were two distraught over the impending gathering to come. The gathering where they would officially banish Ben. Alby and Newt's injuries had swelled, despite applying the ice to the bruises, and everyone noticed Clint's absence at the table. And as it turns out, several people at the table had heard Maria and Newt's argument earlier that day, including Alby. Maria muttered that Gally should have built thicker walls.

"So…" Alby started awkwardly, his eyes shifting between the Newt and Maria. "You guys are… a thing?" He asked. The concept of dating was so foreign to Alby, it may as well have been nonexistent. He had feared that this would happen if a girl showed up at the Glade, but now it was a reality, and Alby didn't know how to handle it, or if it was even his business.

"No they're just _really good friends_." Minho piped up, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh shut up Min. So what if we are." Newt joked. "You jealous mate?"

The boys at the table all "oooohed" at the comeback, and took it upon themselves to interject with their own.

"Maria probably pitied Newt, and that's why she's with 'I'm now." Bill guessed.

"Nah I bet Newt's paying her." Gally offered.

"*Cough* whipped." Zart dared to say.

"They're so cute together." Winston sighed dreamily, he then noticed everyone at the table staring at him. He cleared his throat "I mean uhhh dating is stupid right guys?" He added while laughing awkwardly. Seeing that nobody was buying his act he quickly stood up. "I'm going to go visit Jeff in the Med-hut" He said before running off. Zart just shook his head.

"Winston bats for a different team but he still plays ball." He commented.

The guys went back to taunting Maria and Newt. Minho was the last guy to get a word in.

"I'm surprised Maria's even giving you anything in return, this is the girl who didn't bat an eye at almost cutting her finger off, so how you got any emotion out of her is beyond me." He smirked.

"Ok I've had enough." Maria growled before standing up. "I'll be in the homestead if you need me, but before I go-"Maria leaned down to Newt sitting next to her and brought him into an obnoxiously drawn out kiss. Maria had done this to annoy the guys at the table, and because she enjoyed kissing Newt, it was a win-win for her honestly. The boys all groaned from the excessive P.D.A.

"Get a room you two" James groaned.

"Maybe later." Maria said snarkly. "See you Shanks later." And with that Maria strutted off to the homestead. Leaving Newt sitting dumbfounded at the table, being mercilessly teased by the others.


	12. Len is the worst

**AN: So I think it's been agreed that the ship name is Newia! It sounds a lot better than Marewt so I think it will stick. *THERE ARE SOME TRIGGERING THEMES TOWARDS THE END OF THIS CHAPTER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.***

_One day later_

The day before had been amazing for Maria, she hadn't done much, but she just felt so much more freedom. Sure the guys had teased her and Newt, but so what. Nothing could have stopped how rejuvenated she felt. The day went by in a flash, one would say time flies when you're having fun.

That morning Maria was inexplicably happy. As if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, she had finally resolved her issues with Newt, and now he too seemed _much, much_ happier. Were they a couple? She wasn't quite certain, but what she did know, was that they were at least together.

Maria got dressed in a faded, grey tank and a pair of shorts. She tried to tame her somewhat disheveled hair so she could wear it down, as oppose to in a braid. Newt was still snoring away in his sleeping bag, not even close to being ready to head down to breakfast. Maria wondered if she should just let him sleep, he looked so peaceful at the moment, his chest rising and falling gently, his face not contorted in his almost permanent look of confusion/stress. Was Maria really about to interrupt his peaceful slumber so they could go down to breakfast? Why yes, yes she was.

She tip-toed over to Newt and crouched next to him. "Neeeeeewwwwttttt." She whispered in a sing-song voice. "It's time to get up." She added while poking him in the arm.

"Humph." Newt grumbled and shut his eyes tighter, "Five more minutes." He groaned. Maria pursed her lips and looked at the boy in front of her, clearly he wasn't going to wake up that easily. She sat for a moment, thinking of the perfect way to wake him up, when the idea hit her. It was a dumb idea, but she knew it would work.

Newt was still half asleep, and he wasn't even acknowledging that Maria was still right next to him, he was focused on trying to fall back to sleep. While Newt was doing that, Maria began her ridiculous scheme. She slowly stood up, and instead of leaving Newt to sleep, like he assumed she was doing, Maria did something unexpected.

She swung one leg around Newt, so she was standing with one leg on either side of Newt, and sat down, placing her knees on the ground, Straddling Newt's abdomen. Newt's eyebrows shot straight up, but his eyes remained closed. A devilish smile appeared on his face. This certainly wasn't the worst thing to wake up to, he was definitely awake now, but he wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Well I guess I can't get up now, seeing as you're on top of me." He grinned. "I may as well just go back to sleep." And although he was still grinning, he flopped his head back down on the pillow. Maria pouted and jabbed Newt in the chest,

"Come on Newtie wake up." She whined. Newt just laid on the pillow smugly, with Maria still straddling him.

"Don't make me have to do this Newt." She threatened. Newt didn't respond, instead he let out a fake, exaggerated yawn. Maria huffed, knowing she'd have to execute "Plan B."

She started by grabbing on to Newt's arms, holding them in place. Then she leaned forward, placing a short, tender kiss on Newt's cheek. Newt's eyebrows raised once more, and she could tell he was trying hard not to react to her advances, but he was clearly interested in her new tactic.

Maria continued, placing a trail of slow, sensual kisses down the side of Newt's face until she reached his jaw line. She hesitantly place a short kiss right where his head and neck met, checking for a reaction, she then seized the spot with her lips.

"Mariaaa!" Newt moaned, surprise in his voice. He was incredibly sensitive there, and Maria could tell as she continued to trail kisses around his jawline and neck. Silently giggling as she did so. She finally stopped at one spot in particular, his collarbone. She spent some time there, slowly kissing, licking, and gently biting the spot. Meanwhile Newt's mind had gone blank He couldn't form words, much less intelligible sentences. Occasionally he couldn't help but release a moan from the feeling. Whenever he did Maria would just giggle and kiss the area with more fervor, leaving Newt utterly illiterate.

Maria sat up from her position, causing Newt to wince from the loss of touch, and she admired her work. She had left two marks on Newt's skin. One, on his jawline, near his ear, and the other mark was on his collarbone. The word hickey came to mind, Maria smirked. She had just given Newt two hickeys.

Newt sat up, propping himself up on his elbows. "Bloody hell…" He said breathlessly. "You are the best alarm clock in the shucking world." He said, his voice slightly huskier than before.

"Are you awake yet?" She smirked, slinging her arms over his shoulders.

"Definitely." He breathed, his voice still deep and raspy, leaning forward to plant a kiss on Maria's lips. Hearing Newt talk like that drove her wild, she wasn't sure why but he sounded so much…sexier. She ran her hands through his hair, disheveling it entirely, and was about to deepen the kiss, drive it further, but she was supposed to be the one toying with Newt, not the other way around.

She broke the kiss and stood up. Causing Newt to groan from the withdrawal of contact.  
"Get up Newt. I wanna go to breakfast, so get dressed." She commanded.

A couple minutes later the two emerged from the room and went down to breakfast. Taking their appropriate seats at the table. Clint, Winston, and Alby were all absent, but everyone else was present. Maria went to go grab a plate of food from Frypan, while Newt stayed behind for a moment with the other keepers.

"What the shuck happened to you?" Minho asked gaping at Newt. The rest of the keepers were chuckling to themselves as they stared at Newt.

"What are you talking about?" Newt questioned. He knew he still had his black eye from yesterday, but he didn't think it was that bad.

Minho shook his head and grabbed Newt by the arm, leading him to a secluded place to talk to him in private.

"What the shuck are you doing?" Newt yelled to Minho as he was carried away against his will. Once Minho thought they were far enough away, he released his grip on Newt's arms. Minho turned towards Newt and crossed his arms.

"Alright, as your best friend, you have to tell me. How was it?" Minho asked. Newt stared at him blankly.

"How was what?" He had no idea what his friend was talking about? Did something happen that Newt wasn't aware of?

Minho jokingly shoved Newt's shoulder, "You know what I'm talking about, come on just tell me what happened." He urged. Newt just stared at him blankly. Minho was getting a little annoyed now.

"Don't play dumb with me, your hair is a shucking mess, you're covered in hickeys, and I'm pretty sure you're limping more than usual. You totally did it with her!" Minho raved.

Newt took a step back, realizing why Minho was thinking that. "OH MY GOD No, it's not what it looks like, we didn't do anything like that, we didn't-she didn't- nothing, bloody hell Min, nothing happened like that." Newt sputtered.

Min raised an eyebrow, and lowered his voice, "Newt, I am your best friend, if you are lying to me, I am legally allowed to banish you." He said with a serious tone, although he was clearly joking.

Newt looked down, hiding his blush. "We just made out is all, nothing crazy." He admitted. Minho nodded, believing his answer.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous." Said Minho, looking away from Newt.

"Oh come on mate, don't be like that… There's hope for the future right? "Newt comforted.

"I don't need your pity man, but honestly, you've totally treated me like klunk ever since you started hanging around the greenie. Who am I supposed to hang out with when you're not around? Winston? I don't think so cause that shank's scary. I'm just saying you've totally shut me out." He ended.

"Well that's just because…I don't know you're totally right mate." Newt nodded, all of the sudden feeling like klunk for how he's treated his friend. "We can hang out today, after you run." He offered.

"Alright. But that means no Maria, just you and me." Minho ordered. Newt hesitated but shook his head.

"Yeah, she'll just do her own thing." The two fist bumped and walked back to the breakfast table, where Maria and the others were just finishing breakfast.

"What were you guys talking about, if you were gone any longer Maria here would have started getting' jealous of Minho." Gally joked. Maria turned her head to sneer at him, but she ended up laughing.

"Yeah, where did you guys go?" Maria added. Taking a bite out of an apple.

"Minho had to tell me something." Newt shrugged and picked up an apple from the table. "Come on we gotta head to the med- hut now." He told Maria.

"Talk to you later Newt." Minho said as he began to head off to the maze.

_Couple of hours later_

"So what were you and Minho talking about?" Maria asked, as the two sat just outside the med-hut on their lunch break. Newt was particularly looking forward to lunch considering he hadn't eaten breakfast.

"We were just talking…about…hair? Yeah hair." Newt replied a little too quickly. Newt swore under his breath, knowing that he had just told the most unconvincing lie in his whole life.

Maria shook her head, "Newt, I know you just lied, and clearly it's something important enough to lie about, so tell me what you guys were talking about."

Newt chuckled. "You can't force me to do anything." He chided. Maria squinted at him, and leaned in closely to Newt, inches from his face.

"Come on Newtie, just tell me what you two were talking about." She whispered seductively. Newt gulped, the tips of his ears turning red. Maria had found the perfect way to manipulate Newt into getting what she wanted. Newt mentally scolded himself for letting his hormones be so easily persuaded.

He sighed. "Minho thought me and you…_did_ some things. I had to correct him." Newt murmured. Maria looked at him confused.

"Did what?"

"You know…_did_ _that thing_." Newt continued, hoping that Maria would get what he was saying.

"What thing?"

Newt rubbed a hand down his cheek in frustration, "Oh for shucks sake Maria he thought we had sex."

Maria turned bright crimson and immediately jerked away from Newt. "Oh my god! why would he think that?" She hissed, covering her face with her hands.

Newt simply glared at her and tilted his head upwards. "Probably because you branded me this morning." He said, showing her the hickey she gave him. Maria looked up at the disgruntled boy and couldn't help but to break out in a smile.

"Well you sure seemed to enjoy getting "branded" this morning." She rebutted, shoving his arm playfully. Newt shoved her back. Maria glared. "Oh it's on." The two started laughing, competing in their little "Shove fight."

Maria had basically tackled Newt to the ground, they were giggling like crazy. Newt acted like he was about to bring Maria in for a kiss when all of the sudden, he flipped them over so that he had pinned Maria on the grass. They didn't stop laughing until someone had to interrupt them.

"Hey, yeah, can you guys stop doing that. It's kind of disturbing for third parties to watch." Gally interjected. Maria flung Newt off of her and sat up, brushing some grass off of her shirt.

"Gally! Umm what brings you here?" Maria changed the subject, putting on an innocent smile.

"Well I accidently fell off of the roof of the homestead, so I need a couple bandages, but I see you're a little busy at the moment, so I'll come back some other time." Gally said sarcastically.

Maria was about to roll her eyes and tell him to go get Clint's help, but then she remembered about his concussion. Newt and Maria had been taking care of Clint all morning, while Alby stayed with Jeff, who still hadn't woken up yet. Winston had stopped by three different times to check on Jeff as well.

"Ok Gally, I'll patch you up. But didn't I tell you to be more careful." Maria scolded. Gally looked at his scraped up arm in embarrassment.

"Sorry." Was all he had to say.

Maria rolled her eyes this time. "Just come inside. And as for you, Newt-"She called over to the blonde boy she was leaving, looking rather annoyed to have been interrupted, "Newt go give Clint his lunch." She ordered.

_After work_

Newt had already left to go hang out with Minho, leaving Maria by herself in the room. She had worked particularly late today, on account of her having to yank the splinters out of every Brick-nick. The five Brick-nicks had managed to fall through the roof of the supply room that they were trying to repair, giving all of them plenty of scrapes and splinters that Maria had to treat. She acted annoyed with James for letting the incident happen, but she was secretly glad that she could occupy her time for a moment. She wasn't really sure what she would do with herself since Newt went out. She didn't want to say that Newt was her only friend, but he certainly was her best friend. Minho was her second best, but he was out of the question too. Clint was her third option, but he was out with the concussion. She wondered if she should even bother hanging out with Gally, but she knew it would be too awkward after what he saw earlier today.

Maria groaned, had she really become so dependent on Newt so that she had no one else to hang out with? She sighed, maybe, she thought, she could just go talk to Frypan until dinnertime. She headed over in the direction of the kitchens to go talk to him.

"Hey Fry!" Maria called to the chef who was leaning on a countertop talking to Zart at the moment.

"Oh, hey… Maria." Frypan greeted, a little unenthusiastically. Zart squinted in her direction.

"Is something wrong?" Maria wondered, curious as to why she seemed so unwelcome there. She thought that the two keepers weren't mad at her anymore since tomato-geddon 1.0, and 2.0 had been so long ago.

"Yeah something's wrong." Zart snapped. "Do you know what your shucking dog did?" He continued. Frypan shot him a look, telling him to calm down, but Zart continued glaring at her.

"Stink? I haven't seen him in two days, what's he been up to." She asked cautiously.

"Your shank dog just so happened to dig up a quarter of the garden. He wasted so much shucking food. I look after your shucking dog, and this is how you repay me?!" Zart fumed.

"I don't…I mean…I had no idea." She stuttered, taken back by how angry Zart was acting.

Zart kept talking, "You're lucky I like that shucking dog so much, otherwise I would have chucked him in the Maze, let the grievers treat him like he treated my crops. We're gonna be short on food this month now thanks to you. Looks like nobody at the glade's getting any vegetable soup this month. We gotta wait for the next greenie to show up with some more seed packets."

Maria glared back at Zart, "Well do you know when the next greenie is coming up? It can't be that long."

"She's right Zart." Frypan piped up, "Next greenie ought to be here in a couple days"

"Shut up Frypan, that's beside the point. Anyway if the dumb shank wants her dog back, she can find him in the slammer, I'm off to go salvage what's left of the shucking carrot patch." Zart stormed off.

"He probably won't be at dinner tonight." Frypan mentioned, looking sympathetically at Maria.

"I don't care-WAIT! Did he say he put my dog in the slammer?" She asked in disbelief. Frypan nodded his head.

"Why did he throw a dog in jail?" She was dumbfounded, of all the stupid action at the Glade, this was the stupidest one yet. "He's a dog, he doesn't have thumbs. All you have to do is throw him in a room and lock the door."

Frypan shrugged, "Hey don't blame me, it was all Zart's doing."

Maria rolled her eyes, "I'll be back soon. I'm just going to go bail my dog out of prison.

.

She trudged to the slammer, annoyed that her dog had ended up in prison.

"Stupid Zart." She muttered. "It's not Stink's fault that he ate all of the crops." She whined, knowing very well that it was Stink's fault. She approached the Slammer, anxious to retrieve Stink and go eat dinner. Inside the Slammer sat Stink, curled into a little ball underneath the chair in the Slammer.

"Stink!" Maria called. "Its ok boy I'm here." She walked over to the door, thankful that Zart had at least left the keys in the lock. She walked in to the cell to pick up Stink. He whimpered as she picked him up.

"Aw I'm sorry boy, Zart's just a big jerk, isn't he." She cooed. She would have continued to baby talk Stink, when all of the sudden she heard a very concerning click from behind her, like the click of a key in a lock.

She whipped around, only to see her least favorite glader in the world. Len.

"Why hello there Maria, what a pleasure to finally get to talk to you again." Len smiled maliciously, twirling the key to the slammer in his fingers.

"Len, what the hell, let me out of here you ass!" Maria spat, gripping onto the bars of the Slammer and shaking them. She wanted nothing more than to punch Len in the face, like Newt had done a couple of weeks ago.

"Yeah…Let me think about that. No! Why would I release you when I got you right where I want you?" Len smirked.

"Len if you lay a finger on me, I swear I will kick you in your shucking balls so hard." She spit at Len.

"Relax greenie, I'm not gonna rape you." He droned

"Well then what do you want from me you piece of klunk."

"I don't appreciate your tone young lady." He sneered. "And by the way, if you start screaming, I'm gonna throw your dog to the grievers. Just saying it now to make sure you don't get any ideas.

Maria shut her mouth, he knew that was exactly what she was about to do. "You are so messed up! What the shuck is your problem?"

Len laughed, "Maria, I threw Ben to the grievers, do you really think I wouldn't throw a dog to one?"

She gasped. "You're the reason Ben got stung? He's going to be banished now because of what you did. What is wrong with you?"

Len shrugged. "I guess you could say I'm a little bitter after I got demoted from my job as a runner. Being a Slopper isn't very rewarding work, so I think that I'm due for a little reward right about now."

"What do you want with me? If you want a reward so bad just ask Frypan to bake you a cake or something."

"Hahaha. Very funny greenie, but that's not the reward I'm looking for." He faked laughed. "I want whatever you're giving Lover Boy."

"What are you talking about?" She huffed, could people please stop speaking in riddles around here.

"YOU HEARD ME BITCH." He shouted, then softened his voice once more, "Whatever you've been giving Sir. Suicide, I want you to give to me, it won't be forced if you just agree to it."

"I don't give him anything, and I'd rather die than give you anything." Maria flinched at Len yelling at her but her annoyed look remained on her face.

"That can be arranged." He told her with a hollow, chilling voice. Len stared at her with his glassy, emotionless brown eyes, there was no warmth in his eyes, not like Newt's. Len's eyes were the same color as his greasy, brown hair.

Len grinned his klunk-eating grin and hopped over the bars of the slammer, he hit the ground with a thud. It was easy to hop into the Slammer from the outside, but considering how half of the Slammer was dug underground, it was impossible to jump the fence from the inside. Maria backed as far away from him as possible, and locked her arms into a crossed position.

"Get away from me you asshole." She said uneasily. Len crept closer to her.

"It won't be forced if you just agree to it." He said while placing the key to the lock in her shirt pocket. He continued to step closer. Maria wondered if she could take him in a fight, but she knew that was impossible. Maria was 115 pounds tops, Len had to be a minimum of 160 pounds.

"Len please don't do this." She pleaded, her voice wavering. Len didn't listen though, he stood in front of her and gripped both of her arms tightly, trapping her where she stood. Maria stood paralyzed with fear, trying to lean farther back in the wall.

Len smirked menacingly. "It's cute how you try to act tough around here. We all know you're just a scared little girl, you don't have to act like you're not a completely pathetic bitch when you are one. He gingerly took hold of the strap of her tank top and then violently ripped it in half, exposing part of her black bra, and only leaving her top supported by one strap. Maria wished she was wearing a sports bra instead.

Len decided to cross the line however. He cupped her breast through her bra, enraging Maria, she wanted to kill Len at that moment, even more so when he began to knead with his hand, and disgustingly brought his lips to her jaw.

Something snapped in Maria, maybe it was his words, or maybe it was him tearing her shirt and touching her body without her consent. Either way Maria finally got over the fear and gave Len what he deserved.

"I. told. You. Not. To. Touch. Me." She hissed and shoved Len off of her, catching him off guard. She didn't even wait for him to respond because the next this Len felt had Maria kneed him right in the groin. Len doubled over in pain.

Stink had been cowering in the corner the whole time, unsure what was going on between Len and Maria, but now that he knew Len was an enemy to Maria, he too attacked. Stink sank his teeth right into Len's calf, causing him to scream. Maria kicked his foot out from under him In order to knock him to the ground, she then slammed her foot down on his stomach, hopefully breaking a rib. Stink had persisted in biting the pervert's leg, drawing blood.

Maria kicked the side of his head. Hard. Hoping to knock him unconscious, she didn't know if she had succeeded, but she certainly stunned him. Quickly she reached into his shirt pocket, and grabbed the key. She scooped up Stink in her arm and reached around to the lock on the other side of the door, fumbling with it for a moment before she was free. Len was about to wake up, she could tell from the sound of him stirring behind her. To ensure that Len didn't get out she locked the door behind her, and shoved the key into her pocket.

She didn't stop running until she was out of the forested area completely, and back in the safety of the open Glade. She ran until the forest was no longer in her sight, she only collapsed onto the ground when she thought she was safe. She fell to the ground with a thump in front of the homestead. She looked as if she had gone through a natural disaster. Her knees and hands were dirty and scraped from having tripped on so many roots in the forest, her face was streaked with tears and sweat and dirt, her hair was a tangled with sticks and leaves, and her top had torn even more, revealing even more of her bra.

She didn't know it, but she had collapsed right in front of Newt, Minho, and Alby. They were all sitting on the steps in front of the homestead, they had just come back from dinner, and they had been joking around a bit. Needless to say they had certainly not expected Maria to fall in front of them.

"MARIA WHAT HAPPENED?" Newt shouted, running over to the aid of the girl. Maria didn't even try to cover herself, she couldn't even form a sentence. Her breathing was fast and irregular, tears had begun openly streaming down her face. She tried to talk but her voice kept hitching and getting caught on one word.

"Len." She sobbed. "It was Len THAT FILTHY PERVERT."

Newt froze, His face morphing into such a vengeful expression. Newt looked frantically at Maria, "WHAT DID HE DO?"

Maria tried to explain, but it was almost painful to recall it. She brought her hands to the side of her face in an attempt to steady herself, but she continued to hyperventilate. Newt yanked off his jacket and handed it to Maria, giving her something so she would be less exposed. Maria swaddled herself in the oversized jacket and cried into the too-big sleeves.

Newt turned to Alby. "I'm gonna kill him! I'M GONNA KILL THE BASTARD." He screamed. He looked back to Maria. It was physically painful to see her like this. Whatever Len did to her, Newt was going to make sure it never happened again.

Alby walked up to them and examined Maria, looking for any signs of injury but only noticing the few scrapes. He noticed that her shirt was torn though, and demanded answers from her.

"Maria tell me what happened? We can't punish Len if you don't tell us what he did." Alby pressed.

Maria tried to answer him, but instead let out an unintelligible shriek. The blood from her hands had smudged onto her cheeks, mixing with the tears and dripping down to stain Newt's jacket.

"Come on Maria answer the question." Alby spoke impatiently.

"Alby she's obviously been through something traumatic, don't yell at the shank." Minho shot at Alby. Newt was surprised to hear Minho come to the defense of Maria, he thought Minho was jealous of the girl, but clearly not considering Minho jumped at the opportunity to defend her.

Minho too felt a disgust towards Len, whatever he did, he was going to pay for it. Despite what Newt thought, Minho genuinely liked Maria, they considered each other close friends, and although Minho had grown a little jealous of Maria spending all her time with Newt, he didn't want anything bad to happen to her.

Maria swallowed, still breathing in short bursts, she tried to form a sentence. "He tried… Len touched m-me. He was going to Ra-rape me." She quivered, burying her head into the jacket.

Newt's eyes grew dark. Len had touched her. Len had put his putrid hands on Maria's perfect skin. Newt mumbled a silent threat, vowing that he was going to chop Len's hands off.

Newt looked down to Maria, crouching besides the sniveling, injured girl. He tried to comfort her by wrapping his arms around her, but she shoved him off.

"Don't touch me." She hissed, her eyes full of rage. Newt stumbled back. Her words like a stab in the gut to him.

"But Maria-. " Newt tried to speak.

"I said, don't touch me. No means no Newt, or are you not gonna listen just like Len didn't?" She sobbed at Newt.

Maria looked up at Alby, her eyes dim and devoid of their usual brightness. "Alby I want Len gone. I locked him in the slammer, but if hasn't been fed to a griever by tomorrow morning, I'm gonna cut his dick off and feed it to you. Understood?"

Alby shook his head, ignoring her threats. "Maria it's not that simple-"

Maria piped up once more. "If that isn't enough to get him banished, how about this? Len told me he pushed Ben towards the griever. It was always Len's fault! He admitted it."

"I knew it! I told you that Alby." Minho said urgently to the leader.

Newt tried to reason him as well. "Alby, we're getting a new green bean in two days. Do you really want Len still creeping around? What if it's another girl? Are we gonna let Len assault every bloody female we get?

Alby silenced the others. "Tomorrow morning we'll hold a gathering!" Alby finally announced. "We'll vote on what will become of Len, _and_ we'll finally banish Ben. Ok? Minho go tell the other keepers, Newt stay with Maria, I'm gonna grab Ben and head over to the Slammer. I'll pay Len a little visit.

Minho and Alby left. Leaving Maria and Newt alone in front of the homestead. Newt offered to help her up, but she refused, shakenly getting up on her own.

"Maria are you ok?" Newt whispered. No longer angry, but rather melancholy.

"Go away Newt." She rejected. She stormed off to the room with Stink in tow, and locked the door behind her. She tore off the clothes that Len's disgusting hand's had touched, she threw them against the wall. She made a note to burn the bra later. She threw on the most comforting piece of clothing she owned, Newt's shirt. And flung herself into bed. She was desperate to forget this day, to move on to tomorrow and pretend that this day ever happened. She shut her eyes tight and prayed for sleep.

So much for her being emotionless. She had cried more in these past few days probably more than she had cried as a baby. She couldn't keep carrying on like so, or else the guys would treat her like..._like a girl_. She'd be treated like the little helpless girl the guys all thought she would be. It was official, from now on- absolutely no more crying.

About an hour late she heard a knock on the door, Maria made no move to answer it. She knew it was Newt. She didn't even tell him to go away, she just laid in her bed, wanting to stay alone. The knocking ceased and she heard somber footsteps travel down the hall.

_"__Good."_ She uttered. Let him sleep outside tonight. Maria wanted to be alone.


	13. everything is kinda terrible sort of idk

_THISSSS PARTTTT IS A DREEEAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMM_

_Dream takes place 2 years ago._

_In her dream, Maria was sitting at a clean white desk, staring intently at the screen in front of her. One half of the screen displayed a live video of the glade, while the other half of the screen had a scanner that was measuring the brain activity of somebody named Subject A5. _

_Next to Maria on either side of her, were two girls, both dressed in crisp white lab coats, and looking at the screens in front of them._

_Maria's eyes were locked onto the video though, she felt the panic that was slowly welling in her chest. _

_"What is he doing?" She muttered so quietly, she wasn't even sure if she had said it aloud._

_"Maria what's wrong?" Asked the girl to her left, the girl had ebony dark skin and big brown eyes, her hair was carefully styled into a bun much like every other woman at the facility. The nametag on her lapel clearly reading: Monica. _

_"Monica something's wrong with Newt- I mean subject A5! Look what he's doing." Maria cried, still not looking away from her screen._

_The dark skinned girl leaned over to look at whatever Maria was worried about. She was worried about her best friend. Ever since Maria had begun observing Subject A5, she seemed so much tenser, and stressed out. The past couple days seemed to have really done a number on Maria, she clearly hadn't slept, and her hair had fallen out of her bun and into a tangled heap on her back. Maria barely took lunch breaks any more, all she did was constantly monitor Subject A5._

_Monica viewed the screen, but she didn't see what the big deal was, the subject was just climbing up one of the walls. Monica rolled her eyes at her._

_"Ria he's not gonna escape. He'll have nowhere to go once he reaches the top." Monica informed her, confused as to why her friend seemed so upset._

_"He's not trying to escape the maze…" Maria looked at the screen with a look of pure horror. "…He's jumping."_

_Monica gasped. "How do you know? Are you sure?" _

_Maria nodded her head furiously, "It all makes sense now! This why he hasn't been eating, or sleeping, or talking to anybody in the glade. He's fucking suicidal, that's why." Her voice cracking with every word._

_Monica grabbed hold of Maria's shoulder, trying to steady the shaking girl. "Are you sure he's not just trying to escape the maze?" She asked urgently._

_"No Monica!" She spat angrily. "I've been tracking his brain activity for weeks. His responses have never been weaker, all of his actions are slowed, and there is virtually no activity going on in his brain! It's just like what happened to Subject A18." Maria cried while slamming her hands on to the desk in front of her. _

_Maria had been so angry at Newt for becoming a runner, if he had just remembered what she had told him then he wouldn't be about to jump off the fucking wall._

_ Four months ago, Maria had been promoted to a watcher, the scientists in charge of controlling the videos from the beetle blades, and as soon as she got the position, she had demanded she be assigned to subject A5. Somehow she hoped that observing him would fill the hole left in her chest after he had abandoned her. _

_She shook her head hopelessly. Newt hadn't abandoned her, Ava had taken him from her. Maria felt a deep burning hatred for Ava Paige at that moment. Ava had devoted the entirety of Maria's childhood to make her think that WICKED was good. But WICKED was not good. WICKED was the reason that Newt was about to jump off the wall, and Maria couldn't do anything about it._

_Maria shut her eyes as soon Newt's feet left the ledge. She couldn't stand to look at the video in front of her. _

_A single tear had crept down her cheek. Monica tried to put a comforting hand on Maria's shoulder, but she shook her off. Anger clouded her mind. WICKED made Newt do this. WICKED was to blame. Maria wasn't even thinking when she had driven her fist straight through the thin glass of the screen. Shattering it into millions of pieces. Monica watched Maria in shock as Maria threw her tantrum._

_He was dead and there was nothing she could do about it. They would never see each other again. Newt had just done exactly what Maria feared he would do…he had left her for real._

_Maria angrily stood up, wiping the tears from her red face, and stormed angrily into Ava Paige's office. Maria didn't know what she was doing, but she knew she was going to make Ava pay._

_"Why hello Maria, is everything ok?" Ava asked her in an oh-so innocent voice._

_"You did this to him…YOU'RE THE REASON THIS HAPPENED." She yelled at her superior._

_"Maria what are you talking about?"_

_"YOU'RE A MONSTER AVA. NEWT JUST JUMPED OFF OF THE WALL BECAUSE OF YOUR SICK AND TWISTED LITTLE EXPERIMENT." Maria shouted, inching closer and closer to Ava._

_"Who?" Ava asked with a bored expression._

_"SUBJECT A5. HIS NAME WAS NEWT, AND HE WASN'T A SUBJECT. HE'S A PERSON NOT SOME FUCKING LAB RAT." She sobbed._

_Ava paused, she wasn't really intimidated by Maria's threatening tone, but she was interested to hear what Maria had to say. "He did? Well that's wonderful. I'm sure we'll get some very influential readings out of his brain activity."_

_Maria's jaw dropped open. Did she just say that Newt's suicide was wonderful? Did she just disregard the death of a teenage boy to focus on his brain activity? Maria took a step back from Ava's desk. Ava didn't have anything else to say on the matter, she had just gone back to filing papers on her desk._

_"You don't even care…" Maria whispered, appalled by her inherent lack of emotions. _

_Ava looked up and glared at Maria, "Ms. Bertilla, I care very deeply about this experiment, as do you. I thought you understood the sacrifices that would have to be made in order for the test to succeed, but this is clearly too much for you. I can see from your responses that you are clearly too young to be a watcher, I think it would be best if you spent another year in the science program here at Wicked, and if that does not improve your maturity levels then I might just have to consider…other programs to enroll you in." Ava said sternly._

_"By other programs do you mean group B?" Maria spat. "Maybe then you can get the brain readings of my suicidal impulses." Maria shouted. She remembered back to that day Newt left, when he told her that she would never end up in group B. He had also promised not to leave her, or go in the maze. Maria blinked back tears at the thought of all of his broken promises._

_"Ms. Bertilla you are being far too immature right now. I advise you to go back to your quarters and reflect on your actions. Please get out of my office before I call security on you." Ava said in her usual monotonous voice._

_Maria clenched her fists. She wanted to kill Ava for the words she had said, but she wouldn't. She couldn't. Ava had taught her everything Maria knew, drilling into her mind what was right and what was wrong. Maria wanted so badly to believe that Ava was wrong, and that the maze trials were bad, but Maria could barely bring herself to believe. And it's not like punching Ava Paige would bring Newt back to life. _

_At the thought of Newt Maria let out a sob. She had been so selfish. She had the nerve to be mad at Newt for breaking a couple of stupid promises, while he lay dead at the base of the wall. He was gone, and there was truly, definitely no way to get him back. He was one of the only people to show her kindness, to help her feel accepted. Maria slumped to the floor, paralyzed with sorrow, and started to cry. _

_"MARIA! MARIA WAIT!" Came a shrill voice from outside the door. Suddenly Monica came bursting into the office. She had clearly sprinted there by the sight of her breathing heavily, and her chest heaving up and down rapidly._

_"SUBJECT A5 SURVIVED! NEWT'S ALIVE!"_

_EEeeeeNNNNNNnnnnnDddddDDDDd OFFF DREEEEEAAAAAMMMMMMMM._

Maria had never sat up so fast in her life. She was hyperventilating and sweating, frantically trying to grasp the dream she just had. That dream was so familiar it was sickening, just like the last one she had. Only this time, she could feel the dream fading in her memory so quickly, that she knew it would be gone from her memory in a few minutes. She wanted to remember the dream, she felt like she needed to, maybe it would explain some things to her. Already she had forgotten a few of the more detailed parts of it.

She raced out of bed to grab a pencil and paper from Newt's box and desperately began writing the events of the dream on the paper. It was no use though. The faces from the dream had already smeared into blurry tan smudges, and the only thing Maria was able to write down before the dream left her was _"Sitting at a desk." _She felt like screaming she was so upset. She couldn't even remember why she wanted to remember the dream so badly. It was if some other power was forcibly erasing things from her memory.

Suddenly a knock on the door brought her away from her frustrations, she was about to go answer it, but she remembered how terrible the day before had been.

Great, out of everything that could have been forgotten, why did she have to remember yesterday still?

"Maria open up." It was Minho of all people, knocking forcefully at the door. Maria stayed silent, hoping he would give up and leave.

"Maria this is the third time I've stopped by can you please just open the door?" Minho called to her. She could hear the annoyance in his tone.

Maria looked at her watch, seeing that it was 3:00 pm. She groaned at herself for sleeping in so late. It was pointless to just go back to bed, and judging by the persistence of Minho's knocking, he was going to burst the door down eventually.

She forcefully opened the door. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" She hissed at Minho, staring at her with wide, surprised eyes.

"Well-ummm-gahhh." Minho stuttered losing all of his confidence, "God damn it Maria I'm not talking to you until you put on some pants." Minho added while turning his head away from her.

Maria looked down to see that she was in fact not wearing pants, only Newt's t-shirt. She rolled her eyes and quickly receded back inside to throw on her leggings.

"Happy?" She glared at Minho.

"Not particularly, but whatever…Are you umm…Feeling better?" Minho asked scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"I'm fine." She spit at him. She wasn't obviously, her hair was a rat's nest, her eyes were puffy from crying and her cheeks were flush and streaked red from the tears.

"Yeah I don't think you are cause you were pretty pissed last night, and Newt had to sleep in my room and" Minho was cut off.

"Just tell me why you're here. It's my day off for work anyway." Maria asked impatiently.

"Ok, ok…We need you at the gathering." Minho finally told her.

Maria shook her head. "I'm not a keeper though."

"Well seeing as Clint won't stop throwing up, and Jeff is still knocked out, you're the closest thing we have to keeper of the med-jacks, so you need to be at the gathering." Minho tapped his foot impatiently.

She weighed her options, she could stay in her room, and shut out everyone from her life. Or she could go outside and actually deal with people. It was a tough decision to make.

"Uggghhh fine." Maria whined.

_On the way to the gathering_

"So…" Minho began awkwardly, "Newt's pretty upset. I can tell because I had to share a room with him last night, and he was _really _not ok."

"What's wrong with him?" Maria asked apathetically. She had treated Newt like klunk last night, and she knew it, but God couldn't he see that she wanted to be alone.

"He's all mad at himself," He said, "he thinks he did something wrong and that he ruined whatever you two had going on, seriously are you guys dating or…? I mean you _are_ wearing his shirt right now."

Maria looked down at the shirt with a shameful expression. "We're just…really good friends." She whispered.

Minho would have asked further questions, but they had reached their destination. The northern opening to the maze.

"What are we doing at the entrance? Isn't this a gathering?" Maria was confused as to what was going on. All of the keepers had gathered themselves in front of the opening, all holding long staffs in their hands.

Minho picked up two staffs off of the ground and shoved one into Maria's hands, "We need to banish Ben first…Before the walls close." He informed her.

Maria's eyes widened. This was the banishment ceremony. She was going to take part in exiling a fellow glader. She didn't know what to say, should she have been protesting? Cheering? Maria didn't know what to think of the events that were about to transpire.

"I know what you're thinking, but just remember, Ben is the reason that Jeff hasn't woken up in three days." Minho sensed her hesitation, and assured her that what they were doing was the right thing.

"…Good point." She said, still feeling a little uneasy. Maria hadn't known Ben at all, all she did know was that he went pycho and tried to kill four people. "This is necessary", she reassured herself.

As Maria was mentally preparing herself for the banishing, Bill had dragged Ben over to the center of the gathering. Ben's hand and feet were tied, and Ben had on a dazed expression. He must have just woken up from the Shutdown.

He still looked like an alien though, there was something behind his aloof expression that couldn't be human. His face twitched violently, and he struggled in his confinements.

"Alby, don't do this!" Ben pleaded to the leader standing in front of him. Alby wouldn't even respond to him. Instead he lifted the staff and turned to the rest of the keepers.

"Gentleman…and Maria." He quickly added, "Today we banish Ben for breaking one of our most important rules, harming another glader. Everyone assume their positions."

Everybody formed a half circle around Ben, enclosing him to the point where the only direction he had to go was backwards into the maze. Maria had no idea what she was supposed to be doing, but she imitated the actions of the rest of the guys.

"Guys, please don't do this!" Ben begged, "STOP PLEASE I'M SORRY. I DIDN'T HAVE ANY CONTROL. THIS ISN'T MY FAULT." He screeched as he was slowly being pushed farther and farther back by the staffs of the keepers. The maze made a horrible, ancient creaking sound and began to close. Ben would either have to enter the maze, or be crushed by the closing walls.

"NO STOP! PLEASE JUST STOP!" Ben shouted again, "MINHO, NEWT, PLEASE STOP THIS." His eyes latched on desperately to everyone in the half circle, begging to not be banished. Maria tried to block out the sounds of his screaming. Instead she focused on the other faces around her. All of the guys were showing as little emotion as possible, obviously having done this several times before. Nobody seemed upset over the banishing, and if they did they weren't showing it. All of their expressions were steely and cold, sending chills up Maria's spine. She had never seen this side of the guys before, and it was absolutely terrifying.

The walls were seconds from closing, and Ben was right in the middle of them. He made the final decision of running back further into the maze, so not to be crushed by the walls.

His final scream was cut short by the sound of the two walls colliding together, locking Ben out of the glade and leaving him at the mercy of the grievers.

"He's gonna die in there…" Maria whispered to nobody in particular.

"He's a griever's problem now." Alby approached her. "Maria are you ok? What happened last night was-"

Maria quickly cut him off. "Its fine, I'm fine. I'll feel a lot better when Len's the next guy we're banishing out into the maze."

Alby rubbed the back of his head and winced, "Yeah, about that…"

_1 hour later at the gathering hut_

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE NOT BANISHING HIM?" Maria fumed at Alby. She stood up angrily and addressed the gathering in front of her. "HAVE YOU ALL FORGOTTEN THAT HE TRIED TO RAPE ME?!"

Alby opened his mouth to speak, but Bill, the keeper of the Baggers spoke up. "We only banish guys if they break a rule, technically Len didn't harm you, so he gets to stay." Bill said uncomfortably.

"I'M PRETTY SURE THAT WHAT LEN DID COUNTS AS HARMING ME." She said maliciously.

Alby awkwardly shifted in his seat, "Maria…He only ripped your top, that's not really a good reason to banish somebody."

"BUT HE…HE…" Maria stammered, reflecting back on the day before with disgust.

Bill chimed in with a knowing smirk, "If we really had to banish somebody, it would probably be you seeing as you're the one who broke Len's ribs."

"What are you talking about?" She spat, frankly more annoyed then angry now.

"Well, when you were trying to escape from him you sort of broke some of his ribs, and thanks to your dog he also had to get stitches in his leg." Bill continued. All of the keepers uncomfortably shifted their eyes from Bill, to Maria, to Alby. Waiting for a response.

"…Are you saying you're going to banish me?" Maria asked in disbelief. Thankfully all of the guys shook their heads.

"Shuck are you kidding, of course not." This time it was Gally to speak. "We're just saying that it wouldn't be right to get rid of him. We all hate Len too, but we can't just get rid of the people we don't like."

Maria lowered her gaze, they were right. Len was an asshole, who had clearly done something wrong, but he didn't deserve to be banished. Yesterday Maria had been so angry that she wanted nothing more than to kill Len herself, but she saw the pained look on Ben's face as he was cast off into the maze by people who used to be his friends. Now that she was thinking more clearly, and her mind wasn't clouded with anger, she couldn't wish that fate on her worst enemy.

"I…I understand." She muttered.

"Good that." Alby finished, and turned to everyone else, "Aright you shanks the meetings over. Enjoy the rest of your day off."

The gathering hut cleared out, but Maria stayed behind, standing with her shoulders slumped and a dejected look on her face. The events of the day were just so confusing and upsetting. She had taken part in banishing Ben, and on top of that Len wasn't even banished. Sure she wanted Len to be banished, but did she want Len to die. Maybe? She didn't even know anymore. Why did everything have to be so difficult? Making decisions was so much easier when she only had to focus on her anger.

Maybe she should go talk to somebody, but who could she trust enough to-

"Oh shit Newt!" She instantly thought. He was the only guy who she could talk to, and she had been ignoring him all day. Maria had acted so childish. She was too proud to admit it, but she was going to have to apologize to him. Ugh Newt probably hated her now.

She ran over to the homestead, hoping to find him in the room. She barged into Newt's empty bedroom. Obviously he wasn't there. Where could he be? She thought to herself. Maria felt so bad for yelling at him and telling him to leave her alone. Right now she wanted nothing more than to be next to him. She wanted to be held in Newt's protective arms, to escape from her own conflicting thoughts.

She slowly walked over to her bed and dropped herself onto it. Normally she would have Stink to comfort her when she was upset, but it looked like he had left her too. Her eyes looked frantically around the room until they settled on one spot in particular. Newt's sleeping bag. More specifically, the teddy bear on Newt's sleeping bag.

Maria felt a small smile appear on her face, she remembered the night she discovered Isaac, and how adorable she thought the bear was. She grabbed the bear from the ground and brought him over to her bed. The bear had been able to calm Newt down, so maybe it would do the same for Maria.

She shut her eyes tight and hugged the bear, trying to block out reality. She wished she had a happy memory to think back on, to distract her, but she didn't have any memories since from before the Glade. In the short month she had been at the Glade however, she was able to collect quite a few new memories.

She remembered the bonfire, and how it was the first bit of fun she had at the Glade, and the day she had gone swimming with the guys. She was so wrapped up in remembering the happier times at the Glade, that she didn't even notice a boy walk into the room.

"Hey." Newt broke the silence in the room, catching Maria off guard and causing her to break away from her reflection and bring her attention to Newt.

"Newt!" She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, trying to mask the sadness in her eyes. Newt didn't meet her gaze though. He took a deep breath, indicating that he was about to speak.

"Listen Maria I'm sorry about whatever happened yesterday-" Newt began his apology.

"You don't have to apologize." Maria assured him, but Newt didn't listen, and rather he kept on apologizing to Maria.

"And I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I know you're upset-" He continued.

"Newt." She tried to signal to him that it was ok to stop but he continued on.

"Really it's fine for you to be mad at me, because I'm bloody mad at myself too-"

"Newt." She said with a warning tone.

Newt kept talking, "And another thing-"

He never got to finish his sentence though, because at that point Maria had stood up and wrapped her arms around Newt's neck, pulling him into a tight hug. Newt didn't know how to respond. He figured Maria wanted to strangle him not hug him, but God was he relieved to see that she wasn't mad at him. He wrapped his arms carefully around her waist and hugged back. She responded by burying her head into the crook of his neck. They didn't say anything for a few moments.

Maria finally spoke, "You didn't do anything wrong…I was just being a jerk."

Newt didn't answer immediately, "Yeah…you kinda were." He said jokingly. Maria broke the hug and playfully nudged his shoulder.

"Shut up Newtie… But I'm glad you're don't hate at me." She added.

"Same here." Newt smiled warmly, making Maria want to melt right back into his arms.

.

Newt and Maria spent the rest of the day in the room. Newt laying on the bed, and Maria curled into his side. They didn't talk much, instead just appreciating each other's company. No crying, no talking, no fighting, just being close to each other, and being happy that neither of them was mad at the other. This was exactly what Maria needed after this terrible, terrible day.

"Should we head down to dinner?" Newt asked, placing a loving kiss on the top of Maria's head. She hadn't had anything to eat all day, but she didn't want this moment to end.

"I'm not hungry." She yawned, and shifting her position ever so slightly.

"Me neither. Also my bloody leg is asleep." Newt told her. Maria chuckled and pressed her forehead to Newt's, closing her eyes. She pressed a short sweet kiss to Newt's lips. It was amazing how Newt had made her forget all of the terrible things in her mind. He was like a security blanket for her, she couldn't help but feel safe with him next to her. She loved how gentle he was, how patient he had been with her, how sane he made her feel. Being with Newt made everything make sense.

Maria fell asleep to the steady rhythm of Newt's breathing. Newt played lazily with Maria's red hair that was sprawled over his chest, gently twirling it in his fingers. She looked so peaceful asleep, free from all of the worries that had plagued her the past few days. Newt couldn't begin to say how happy he was that Maria hadn't shut him out again. Newt knew Maria would kill him if he said this out loud, but to him, Maria was fragile. Not to say that she wasn't strong because she was strong, but fragile in the sense that the way she handled her feelings made her vulnerable. She bottled up her emotions, and when those feelings inevitably spilled over, she didn't know how to carry herself. Maria was fragile, and Newt recognized himself in that fragileness, He used bottle his feelings too, but if Maria broke the way he had been broken, Newt didn't know what he would do. He shook the thoughts out of his head, he would never let that happen to Maria, he couldn't afford to let that happen. Instead of worrying himself anymore, Newt instead paid attention to the gentle snoring from Maria, and allowed it to lull him to sleep.

**AN: Sorry guys but Len is staying in the glade. plz dont kill me sorry. I was originally gonna upload something different, but I felt the story called for a chapter like this. As always please leave male OCs and reviews, and feel free to ask me questions about the story, I'll try my best to answer them all! I hope to put another chapter out hopefully by tuesday. Thanks for reading and don't forget to favorite this story if you like it! If this chapter gets a lot of reviews I'll be more likely to put the next one out sooner!**

**Also guys if you like this story i recommend you read InvisableSoul4's story: The groups. It's really good and you guys should go check it out. **

**Adios #Newia4life**


	14. Enter Caroline: Pursued by injury

**AN: Yay for 5000 views. S/o to all y'all reading this. U the real mvps.**

"Maria wake up." Newt nudged the sleeping girl next to him.

"Ugh go back to bed Newt." Maria whined, her voice was groggy and tired. She turned over in bed so she was facing away from Newt.

"Come on Maria don't make me do this." Newt warned, repeating the same words that Maria had told him a few days ago.

Maria scoffed, "What are you gonna do? Give me a hickey?" Maria quickly picked up what Newt was doing and stopped him in his tracks. She laughed at how predictable he was.

Newt squinted at the back of Maria's head. He was obviously going to need to try some other tactics. After a moment of thought, Newt decided that the quickest way to get Maria up was by force. He snaked his arm around Maria's waist and pulled her in close to him.

"Newt stop it. I'm still asleep." She yawned, but she certainly didn't struggle against Newt's grip.

"Well than good luck sleeping through this." Newt smirked. He stood up and scooped Maria off of the bed, lifting her completely in his arms. Shaking off her surprise, she quickly braced herself by wrapping her arms around Newt's neck for support, while Newt held her bridal style. Maria tried to retain her annoyed face for as long as possible before she broke out in a smile.

"You are so shucking annoying sometimes. Put me down"

"Hmmm, I don't think so."

Sleeping next to Newt had made that night somewhat more bearable. Twice Maria was jolted awake with nightmares of Len lurking in shadowy corners, and of Ben screaming from beyond the walls. But every time Maria woke up hyperventilating, Newt was there, offering a protective arm to wrap around Maria.

"Morning Love." Newt said with a cheeky grin, leaning his head down to place a kiss on Maria's forehead.

"Morning Newtie!" Maria she giggled before turning her face expressionless, "But seriously put me down."

"Ok, ok fine." Newt carefully placed Maria down so she could get dressed for the day. Maria rummaged through her backpack of clothes to find something to wear, but her selection was pretty limited. One pair of shorts, a skirt, one pair of jeans, one pair of leggings, two tank tops (minus the one Len ripped), three shirts and one sweatshirt. And only one pair of shoes, her combat boots. It wasn't like there was anybody around the Glade that would judge her for repeating outfits, but could you blame the girl for wanting a few more options. She ended up just wearing a tank top and jeans, an outfit she had worn many times prior.

Her stomach rumbled. Maria had literally not eaten anything for 24 hours and was just now realizing how hungry she was.

"Newt if I don't get something to eat in the next five minutes, I'm going to pass out." Maria whined.

"Well we wouldn't want our only med-jack passing out on us now would we?" Newt said before throwing on shirt and making his way to the door. It kind of annoyed Maria how quickly Newt could get ready for the day. All he had to do was put on a shirt and that's pretty much it. He didn't have to deal with a tangled mess of hair like Maria had to. She tried to smooth it out with her fingers, but it was pointless. Wearing her hair down was not an option. Defeated, she put her hair up in a ponytail and followed Newt out the door.

"Just so you know, you do have to go to work today." Newt told her sternly on their way to breakfast. Maria fake pouted at the news.

"Aww do I have to." She complained.

"Yes, we need a med-jack on duty, and sorry but I'm not gonna be at their today. Zart needs me in the Gardens to record how many crops we lost thanks to a certain dog." He said while lifting an eyebrow at Maria. She grumbled how that wasn't her fault before leaving to go get a plate of food. It was a little upsetting to hear that Newt wasn't going to be at the med-hut. That meant she would have to spend all of her time with Clint, who was pretty annoying to be around in his concussed state.

As Maria sat down, she couldn't help but notice the large smile plastered onto Winston's face. Usually when Winston smiled it was because he had just killed an innocent little farm animal, so seeing Winston smile this early in the day wasn't the most comforting thing.

"What are you smiling about?" Maria asked Winston with caution, slightly afraid that he was about to tell her all about his animal murdering exploits.

"Jeff woke up last night." Winston beamed. This made all of the guys at the table perk up upon hearing this. Jeff waking up was awesome news, the constant stress of having a comatose glader was lifted from Maria's shoulders.

"How is he?" Maria asked enthusiastically, anxious to know that Jeff was ok.

"He said that he feels fine. No concussion of anything." Winston enthused. Nobody seemed happier about Jeff waking up than Winston. When they weren't working, Winston and Jeff usually spent all of their time together. Winston had actually visited Jeff so many times during his coma to the point where Winston had just up and neglect his work. (That was probably why the past few meals had so little meat in them). The rest of the table happily chatted about how good it was to not have any unconscious gladers left in the med-hut.

"I'm gonna go head to the med-hut to go check on him and Jeff then." Maria said as she finished up the last of her eggs.

"Alright talk to ya later love." Newt said as he leaned in to kiss her cheek goodbye. The gesture was sweet and sincere, but Maria didn't get to appreciate it thanks to all of the guys collectively groaning.

"You guys need to cool it with that lovey-dovey klunk." Groaned Gally.

"Please just leave before I throw up." Whined James. Maria scoffed as she walked away from the table. Boys could be so immature sometimes.

.

She walked into the med-hut to the welcoming site of Clint throwing up all over the floor.

"What the shuck Clint?" Maria sighed, carefully stepping around the mess, this was like the tenth time he had puked in her presence. "What are you doing out of bed?"

Clint rolled his eyes, "I just wanted to get a little fresh air." He said defensively.

"Yeah well now I gotta clean this up." She whined pointing angrily at the floor.

"You're a med-jack! This is what you signed up for." Clint retorted.

"Well than as the med-jack, I command you to go back to bed." Maria huffed and went to go get the cleaning supplies.

"Stupid Clint, with is stupid concussion, and stupid face. Why couldn't he be the one in the coma?" She muttered.

"Did somebody say coma!" Said a cheerful voice from behind her. There was Jeff, sitting at the base of the stairs with his usual goofy grin on his face.

"Oh thank God you're awake!" Maria ran over to engulf Jeff in a hug. The hug was a little awkward, seeing as he was sitting down and she was standing, but the hug perused regardless. She didn't really know Jeff that well, but they were co-workers. In the short week they had worked together Jeff had proven to be a pretty cool guy. He had a great sense of humor, and they both agreed that Clint needed to loosen up. Another great thing about Jeff was that he always had a positive outlook on things.

"Haha Ok… You're hugging me ok." Jeff said awkwardly.

"Sorry." Maria withdrew herself from the hug and stepped away. "It's just great to see you're not dead."

Jeff nodded. "Yeah…like Ben." Jeff's voice trailed off.

"Oh yeah…like Ben." Maria murmured. "You heard about that?"

"Winston told me everything I've missed."

Before Maria could think of a response to the depressing comment, a voice from the other room called out, "EY MARIA, THIS VOMIT AINT GONNA CLEAN ITSELF." Clint shouted.

Maria slumped her shoulders and parted ways with Jeff. She grabbed the mop and bucket from the closet and begrudgedly went to clean Clint's mess.

"Ugh someone deliver me from this hell." She groaned, praying for something to distract her from her chores. Of course she didn't expect her prayer to be answered, but imagine her surprise when out of nowhere, the loudest most terrifying sound Maria could ever remember hearing began ringing throughout the Glade.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT." She shrieked, covering her ears with her hands. The sound was metallic and repetitive, like a siren.

Clint wasn't supposed to be exposed to loud noises with his concussion, but the unavoidable sound seemed to be turning him green. "Yep, I'm gonna puke." Clint mumbled as he stumbled over to the trash can.

While Maria was freaking out and Clint was vomiting, Jeff was actually laughing. How was he laughing when there was a demonic siren sounding through the air?

"WHATS SO FUNNY?" Maria yelled to Jeff over the sound of the siren.

"I didn't realize that it had been a month already. That's the newbie alarm!" Jeff chuckled.

"WHAT!" Maria yelled. Her eyes widened, but that meant-

"THERE'S A NEW GREEN BEAN!." Jeff yelled. Maria gasped. She wasted no time in dashing out of the med-hut and making a beeline for the box, where a small amount of guys had already gathered. She pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Newt and Alby were already front and center, ready to retrieve the green bean.

"You think it'll be another girl?" Maria asked hopefully.

"Dunno, but whoever they're gonna be your responsibility." Alby answered, his eyes focused on the box in front of him.

"What?" She raised her eyebrow, Maria didn't remember hearing anything about being responsible for anyone.

Alby shrugged, "we normally have the last green bean be in charge of the new one. You and Newt were the exception though."

"Why?"

"Chuck wasn't fit to be your guide because he was too young, and since you were the first girl, he wouldn't have been able to protect you." Alby said.

"Not to say that you needed someone to protect you." Newt chimed in quickly, trying to soothe over the insensitive comment. Maria's angry glare went unnoticed though, because the guys all turned their attention to ceasing of the alarm.

There was a disturbing silence in the glade, followed by the creaking hatches of the box opening. Watching the scene unfold sent chills up Maria's spine. One month ago, that had been her down there, someone down there was just a scared and confused as she had been.

The doors opened completely, revealing a figure concealed in the darkness of the box, not yet recognizable in the shadows.

"Is it a chick?" Asked a glader.

"It's probably a shucking guy. Well is it?" Questioned others. All of the guys crowded around the opening, anxious to see who the new green bean was.

"I'm going down there!" Maria announced. She didn't even wait for Alby to protest. She jumped into the box exactly like Newt had the day she showed up. Only then did she hear the whimpering and sobbing coming from the girl on the floor.

She was definitely a girl. That much Maria could tell, due to her shrill crying and the curtain of straight black hair that covered her face. The girl was sat in the middle of the box, hugging tightly to her knees with her head tucked down. Just like Maria had done.

"It's ok, everything's ok now." Maria assured the crying girl.

"Please let me out of here." The girl whispered in between sobs. She didn't look up at Maria, rather she began to sob even harder.

"Ok but you need to cooperate." She told the girl calmly. The crying girl didn't seem curious as to where she was, she asked no questions, and made no attempt to harm Maria. She was literally paralyzed with fear.

"WELL IS IT A GIRL?" Alby called down to Maria, probably annoyed that she was idling for so long down in the box.

"YEAH, BUT SHE DOESN'T WANNA MOVE. CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME LIFT HER UP?" Maria called to the crowd above her.

A moment later Newt hopped down into the box. "Huh, so she is a girl. I wander if they're just gonna keep sending up girls from now on?"

"Newt you can think about that later, what are we supposed to do with her." She hissed pointing at the despondent girl on the ground.

"We've gotten plenty of crying green beans before, you just gotta now how to deal with them." Newt told her.

"And how is that?" Maria crossed her arms over her chest.

"Like this." He grabbed the girl by her arms, and threw her up out of the box forcefully. Maria was genuinely surprised to see Newt act so…impolitely.

"WHAT ARE YOU? HEY STOP STOP." The girl finally shrieked as she was tossed onto the ground outside of the box. Newt helped hoist Maria out of the box and lifted himself out as well.

"At least you got her to talk." Maria nodded her head at Newt. As she stood over the girl, now laying on the ground.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? GET AWAY FROM ME." The girl shrieked, curling into a ball. Maria didn't get a good look at the girl, all she knew about her was that she had caramel colored skin and incredibly straight black hair.

"We're not gonna hurt you greenie." Alby reached his hand out for her to grab onto, but she just scrambled away from him.

"WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?" She sobbed.

"Unbelievable." Newt scoffed. "Why does everybody think we kidnapped them?"

Alby shot a look at Newt, but went back to trying to talk to the girl. "Can you tell us your name greenie?" He said in a louder tone over the girls cries.

The girl tried to cease her crying, slowly releasing a few jagged breaths. "Caroline?" She said almost as if she was questioning whether or not it was her name. "No it's Lina, my name is Lina."

Maria smiled sympathetically at her. "Lina, everything is fine, stop crying and we'll explain everything to you." She finally stopped crying, still breathing heavily and wiping the tears away from her face.

"Please tell me what's going on." She pleaded, trying to regain her composure. Lina was able to stand up on her own, but she didn't look ok at all. Her knees were wobbling and her arms were wrapped around herself protectively.

"This is the Glade, every month we get one green bean, this month it's you. You're probably scared right now because you don't have any memories, but eventually you'll get used to life here." Alby said while gesturing around the glade.

"How did you know I didn't have any memories?" Lina whimpered while stepping backward away from Alby, similar to how a cornered animal would.

Newt was the one to speak this time. "Nobody here has any memories. Some of us have been here for three years and we still don't know why we're here, or what we're supposed to be doing here. We think the only way out is through the maze though…which we haven't solved yet."

"Newt slow down you'll overwhelm her." Maria chastised. Meanwhile Lina looked like she was about to faint. Her eyes shifting quickly in every direction, soaking in the surroundings.

"The only way out is through the maze?" Lina asked, trying to stop hyperventilating. Nobody noticed that her eyes had focused right on the entrance to the maze."

"Um yeah." Newt answered, normally the brand new green beans weren't really worried about the maze, so he found her question oddly out of place. "But only runners are allowed in there."

Newt's comment fell on deaf ears though. Before anybody could stop her Lina took off running across the Glade. Nobody expected her to run, they all assumed she was too scared to do anything. They were wrong though, because boy did this girl run.

"WE GOTTA RUNNER!" Shouted multiple voices from the crowd. Lina sprinted like a deer in the direction of the opening. A couple of them tried to catch up to her, but they were clearly out matched, Lina was like lightning on her feet. She had ran the entire clearing in under a minute, leaving all of the gladers to watch in horror as Lina broke one of the most important rules. Maria looked in the direction of the entrance dumbfounded, she couldn't believe how stupid Lina's actions were. She was running into the maze hoping to find freedom, when she was most likely going to find her own demise.

"What a bloody idiot." Newt muttered. Secretly, Newt was freaking out. If this girl go trapped in the maze, her death would be on everyone's conscious. He feared that the death of a girl would weigh heavily on the rest of the gladers, especially Maria.

Lina was almost out of sight, in another few moments she would have turned down one of the corridors in the maze and probably be gone forever. All of the gladers had ran to the entrance, but nobody dared step foot in the maze. She was almost out of their vision, when the unpredictable happened.

Minho had turned the corner of the maze at the exact same time as Lina, and the two collided at full speed, knocking them both to the ground.

Maria could hear Minho's curses from 100 feet away, but he quickly got up to access the situation.

"MINHO GRAB HER AND BRING HER BACK." Alby yelled from just outside the maze. Minho had no idea what was going on. He had just ran into a girl he'd never seen before, and-oh shuck the girl was crying, or had been at least. Whatever had just happened, Minho would figure out soon. He picked the girl up and draped her arm across his shoulder, practically carrying her out of the maze. The problem was that the girl, whoever she was, had ran into Minho pretty hard. Whenever he stepped on his right foot, searing pain shot through him. If this shank had broken his ankle he was going to be seriously pissed off. He took another step. Yep his ankle was definitely broken. Well shuck.

"Ok you can tell me whatever just happened once I get to the med-hut. She broke my shucking ankle." Minho grimaced as he threw Lina down in front of Alby and limped over to Maria.

Maria looked down with worry at Minho's leg. "Ok I'll see what I can do." She nodded at Minho. "Somebody check and see if the girl is ok." Maria shouted behind her back as she led the pained runner over to the med-hut.

Newt smirked, he thought it was funny whenever Maria entered what he called "Doctor Mode." Maria just had this flawless way of transitioning from a sarcastic teenage girl into a focused medical practitioner.

Newt turned to Caroline, or Lina, as she preferred to be called, "What you just did was so bloody stupid?" He started to yell at her, but he hadn't noticed that the girl had started crying again. Newt sighed, "Listen I know you're upset and confused, but you should be thanking Minho for running into you. You would have died in there." He reasoned.

"I'm not crying because of that." Lina sobbed. "I'm crying because I think my leg is broken."

"Oh shuck well why didn't you just say so?" He snapped at her. "Alby come help me take her to the hut." Newt called to the boy next to him. Alby, along with everyone else in the glade, had watched in silence at whatever just happened. Lina sure had made an impression on the gladers.

Alby and Newt half carried, half dragged Lina to the Med-hut. Lina didn't exactly trust the gladers who were supposedly trying to help her, but Lina knew she couldn't run away with a broken leg. If these people were going to fix her leg she wouldn't argue, but as soon as she was ok she would run again. Something wasn't right about the glade, and Lina didn't want to stay another minute.

"What is she doing in here?" Minho groaned when he saw Newt and Lina limp into the med-hut. "Come to break my other ankle huh sweetheart." Maria had told Minho what he missed, and as happy as he was to have another girl in the glade, he wasn't exactly thrilled that Lina's stupid actions led to him breaking his ankle.

Lina didn't dignify his comment with a response, instead Newt spoke up.

"We think her ankle is broken too." Newt told Maria, who was frantically gathering materials to make a proper splint for Minho.

Maria sighed. "Just set her down next to Minho, I'll fix her up to." She said distractedly. Lina very hesitantly took her seat next to the runner.

"Did I ever thank you for breaking my ankle Sweetheart?" Minho said sarcastically, he was going to hold this grudge for a looooong time.

Lina wiped the tears from her cheeks and buried her head in her hands, she didn't care about Minho's sarcastic remarks, she only cared about getting out of wherever the hell she was. "This is the worst day of my life." She whimpered.

"Well technically this should be the only day of your life you can remember, not much competition than huh sweetheart." Minho shrugged.

"Stop calling me sweetheart."

"Stop breaking peoples ankles." Minho bickered.

"Minho it was obviously an accident will the two of you just apologize to each other." Maria snapped. She did not want to deal with her two patients fighting like children.

Lina grumbled an insincere apology to Minho, but the runner was to proud to accept nor apologize himself.

"Apology not accepted."

Newt and Maria rolled their eyes at how dramatic Minho was.


	15. A whole lotta crying

**IMPORTANT AN: So I'm really considering changing the name of the story to Ever Glade. Forever glade was just supposed to be a place holder name, but then I just forgot to change it idk. So don't be surprised if tomorrow the story is called Ever Glade.**

Lina's POV

"This is a dream. None of this is real. I will wake up soon." Lina repeated for the hundredth time. She had to be dreaming, how else could any of this could be possible. She had no clue where she was, no memories, and no idea who the people around her were. She fidgeted in the bed she was set in, breathing out shaky, uneven breaths that no matter how hard she tried to calm down, never appeared to cease.

She and Minho had been dragged up a flight of stairs into this strange room full of beds that had so cleverly been named, the bed room, where the patients at the med-hut rested. Minho had already had his ankle wrapped, and Maria was currently working on her leg.

"Lina can you hold still, I'm trying to work here." Maria told her as she was wrapping gauze around her ankle. Lina felt incredibly uneasy watching Maria bandage her leg, this girl couldn't have been any older than 16, and Lina didn't exactly trust someone her age to preform medical procedures on her. Hopefully Lina would wake up from this terrible dream before Maria ended up killing her.

"I don't have to do anything, because you're not real. You're a figment of my imagination, and you won't exist once I wake up." Lina said to Maria, however it sounded more like Lina was trying to convince herself, judging by the waiver in her voice.

"Oh my shucking god, Sweet heart, you've got the worst case of denial I've ever seen from a greenie. Is it that hard for you to accept that you're here?" Minho groaned from the bed across from her.

Lina squinted her eyes at Minho, "I thought I told you to stop talking to me."

Whoever this Minho guy was, he was impossibly annoying. He had called her sweet heart about a billion times in the past hour and a half in his stupid sarcastic voice. She had no idea how she had managed to dream up a boy this insufferable.

Minho put his hands up in mock surrender, "Oh I'm so sorry Your Majesty, is my mere presence tainting the air around you?"

"Fuck you." Lina spat.

Minho scoffed, "Wow Princess, you really know how to insult a guy, and for your information, around here we say shuck, not fuck."

Lina turned her head away from the boy, maybe he would stop talking to her if she ignored him. Instead she focused on Maria wrapping her swollen ankle tighter and tighter.

"You're wrapping it too tight." She cried out in pain.

"Sorry I have to do it this way if you want it to heal properly." Maria muttered in apology.

Minho rolled his eyes, "Just remember that it's your fault you're in this shucking mess. If you hadn't run off like an absolute idiot, you and I wouldn't be in this situation." He said to Lina.

Lina had the urge to talk back to Minho, but she persisted in giving him the silent treatment.

"Aw so now you're done talking to me? How mature."

The whole time they were bickering, Maria had to listen the whole time as she was doctoring the two of them, and one can only take so much of Minho's condescending voice before they eventually snap.

"Minho it's her first day, Stop torturing her." Maria snapped at Minho.

"But-"

"No buts. You should know how confused Lina is right now, the last thing she needs is you arguing with her."

Minho opened his mouth to speak, but he silenced himself before Maria could scold him again. Frustrated, he crossed his arms and leaned back in his bed. Still staring at Lina with an angry expression.

"Well I think that's the best I can do for now." Maria sighed as she stepped away from Lina, who looked skeptically at the splint on her ankle. "We're gonna have Gally build two sets of crutches first thing tomorrow morning, but for now you guys need to rest. Seriously. I think it would be best if you stayed in here for tonight, and we'll figure everything out tomorrow."

"Maria you can't be serious. I'm not spending a night in here. With her." Minho protested.

"Well last time I checked you're not a med-jack. I am, and what I say goes." She smirked. "I'm gonna stop by to check in on you two every couple of hours, and I think Newt's gonna bring some food for you guys-"

"You're correct." Said a cheerful British voice from behind Maria. In walked Newt carrying two paper wrapped dinners for Lina and Minho.

"Heya Newtie." Maria grinned and brought Newt into a quick hug.

"Hey love, so how are the patients doing." Newt asked as he handed the two their meals.

"Minho won't stop bothering Lina." Maria informed Newt.

Newt turned to look at Minho, "Leave the bloody girl alone mate. It's her first day."

Minho threw his arms in the air in exasperation. "Is it national team up on Minho day or something?"

"Yup." Maria and Newt said in unison, they laughed at their sarcasm, but Minho didn't think it was funny at all.

"Alright thanks for fixing my leg now can you two please leave before you start making out or something." Minho quipped.

Maria laughed sarcastically, "Great idea. We'll leave, but I'll come back to check on you two soon." Maria warned. She grabbed Newt by the arm and dragged him out of the med-hut quickly. Maria really needed a break from acting so serious, so she was more than ready to enjoy her break.

.

Lina and Minho sat awkwardly across from each other in their beds. Minho angrily chewing his sandwich, while Lina didn't touch her food. She couldn't eat when she felt like throwing up from the confusion of everything. This was the worst dream/nightmare/ hallucination she'd ever had. And how and why did everything feel and seem so realistic? Normally, if she injured herself in a dream, she would wake up immediately. The fact that she had broken her ankle, but remained in her dreaming state concerned her. What if…what if she wasn't dreaming?

Lina couldn't help the tears that had begun welling in her eyes again. A couple involuntary whimpers escaped as she wondered whether or not any of this was real.

"This is a dream. None of this is real. I will wake up soon." Lina chanted under her breath. Repeating the phrase, her heart rate slowly returned to normal, but that didn't stop the tears openly flowing down her cheeks.

Minho rolled his eyes. "You're not dreaming green bean."

This girl really didn't want to believe that this was real, Minho thought in exasperation. Minho tried to put himself in Lina's shoes and thought back to remember his first day at the glade, but considering that was three years ago his memory was a little fuzzy. All he remembered he was the third boy to have shown up in the box, as a shrimpy little fourteen year old. All Minho really remembered was that the moment after he arrived in the box, he immediately ran into the maze, trying to get away from the people he thought had kidnapped him. Yes, Minho had done exactly what Lina did, but he couldn't admit that after he had been teasing her about it for the past three hours.

Minho was being pretty harsh on Lina now that that Minho thought about it. He had been too busy being annoyed with her to realize that she was probably freaking the shuck out. And- oh great she was crying again.

What was he supposed to do? Ignore her? Comfort her? When one of the guys around the Glade cried, Minho thought it was funny, but when it was a girl crying, it pained Minho to watch. It was hard enough watching Maria cry, but she had Newt there to help her. Lina didn't have anybody or anything to comfort her through her first day at the Glade. Well technically she had Minho, but how could he help her situation?

Minho loudly cleared his throat, "Hey um, do you wanna stop crying maybe?" Wow, real smooth. Not surprisingly, Lina's crying pursued. Minho took a deep breath. Maybe he would have to approach the situation a little gentler.

"It's really not so bad here in the glade, we have a good system going for the most part." He shrugged. "You'll most likely be fine as long as you stay out of the maze." At the mention of the maze, Lina perked up. Apparently the structure she had ran into was a maze, but she didn't understand why it was so off limits. And if it was the only way out how had they not solved it yet?

"Why were you allowed in the maze, I thought nobody was allowed in there?" Lina asked with a shaky voice. Minho was surprised she was actually trying to talk to him. He thought that she was just going to cry herself to sleep, but for whatever reason Lina seemed very curious about the maze.

"I'm allowed in the maze cause I'm a runner-I'm the one looking for a way out of this shucking hell hole." Minho said with a hint of resentment in his voice.

She didn't appreciate his smart-ass tone. "Well you're clearly not doing a good job if you haven't solved it after three years." Lina griped.

"Oh shut up. You don't know klunk green bean." Minho jerked his body in anger, wincing at the sudden aggravation of his ankle. He took that as a sign to calm himself down and spoke in a less malicious tone. "For your information _sweet heart, _the maze is shucking huge, and it's broken up into all of these stupid sub-sections. And if that's not hard enough, the entrance closes at night and the maze changes every day, as in the walls literally move. So excuse me for having not solved the world's hardest puzzle."

Lina sank back in her bed, trying to fathom how on earth anybody could solve such a difficult maze. "Is it just you trying to solve it?"

"…It's me and one other guy now. Used to be more, but it's a pretty stressful position and it's hard to last long as a runner. They either quit…or we lose them to the grievers." Minho's tone changed from sarcastic to a chilling seriousness.

"What are grievers?"

Minho shot her a pained expression, "Are you sure you wanna know. It's some pretty heavy klunk to learn about."

"I'm not a fucking child, I can handle it." Lina sneered.

"Says the girl who's literally been crying the whole time she's been here."

"Just tell me what a griever is."

Minho sighed, "Grievers are the reason that the maze is off limits. They're these robotic spider slugs that sting you with a deadly poison. They only roam the maze at night, and if any poor shank is stuck in that shucking maze overnight, they sure as klunk won't be alive in the morning."

Lina's expression turned to one of horror "That's horrible…Have the griever's ever killed anyone before?"

"Yeah, but sometimes you only get stung, and unless you get the cure in time, you just go crazy and die."

Lina pictured what a griever must have looked like in her head. Simply terrifying, she immediately wanted to discard that mental image. "Ok can we talk about something else now?" She said hurriedly.

Minho chuckled softly, "A few minutes ago you wouldn't even let me talk to you, now you want a whole conversation?"

"You know what, forget I said anything. Now you're not allowed to talk to me anymore."

"Shuck that. I'll talk to you if I want to. Just try and stop me sweet heart." Minho scoffed.

Lina groaned in frustration. "You are so-"

"Attractive? Awesome? Sexy? Smart? Cool? Suave?" Minho smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"-Insufferable is more like it." Lina crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're no catch yourself Princess." Minho rolled his eyes. "Second girl I've ever met and I have to say I'm a little disappointed."

"What do you mean second girl, what are you talking about." Lina quirked her eyebrow.

"You and Maria are the only girls here if you hadn't notice."

Lina was shocked to say the least. When she first showed up there had been a rather large crowd gathered before her, she just assumed some of them were girls. "I guess I didn't notice." She murmured.

Thankfully Minho decided not to interject another stupid comment, and a peaceful silence fell over the room. Lina's eyes wandered over to the meal placed on her bedside table. She still didn't feel like eating, but something definitely caught her eye.

Lina picked up a shiny silver spoon and brought in front of her face. Just as she had hoped, her distorted reflection stared back at her. Since Lina didn't have any memories of her appearance she thought that she could use the spoon as a mirror, and at least she could figure out what she looked like.

She looked at her reflection in the spoon. Her skin was on the darker side, not nearly as dark as Alby's, but more of rich caramel color. The color of her eyes was so dark they were practically black, and her eyes themselves were almond shaped. Much to her dismay, they resembled the shape of Minho's eyes. She didn't really like having traits in common with possibly the most annoying guy in the world.

Upon further inspection, she saw that she had a small, flat nose, with a tiny beauty mark on the left side, but otherwise her skin was perfectly clear. Her lips were plump and full with a natural pinkish hue. While her hair was black and straight, but currently in an incredibly disheveled state. She tried to smooth out her frizzy locks with her free hand.

"Are you seriously looking at yourself in a spoon?" Minho shook his head as he noticed Lina stare intently at the spoon. "That's about the girliest thing you could be doing right now."

"Well excuse me for being curious." She rolled her eyes and tossed the spoon to the side. She had kind of hoped that seeing her reflection may have invoked some memories, but to no avail. Any time she tried to think of her past she drew a blank.

"A little vain if you ask me."

Lin raised a quizzical eyebrow. If anybody seemed vain, it was Minho. It wouldn't surprise her if he turned out to be utterly obsessed with his appearance. His hair was perfectly styled, his face was clean, unlike all of the other guys at the glade. His shirt didn't have a speck of filth on it. Not to mention his muscles filled out his shirt perfectly and-

Lina was getting carried away, and it was quite obvious to Minho that Lina was staring.

"Like what you see sweet heart?" Minho flashed a sarcastic smile.

"What? No." Lina quickly averted her gaze and tried to think of an excuse, "…I just couldn't help but notice how filthy your face is." She lied.

"Shuck are you serious?" Minho grabbed the spoon on his bed side table and frantically looked at his own reflection, only to see that Lina had lied to him.

Lina rolled her eyes, "And you say I'm vain?"

"Shut up."

Lina chose not to retaliate with a response. Instead she flopped over in her bed in attempt for sleep to find her. She knew that once she woke up, this terrible dream would be over. The sooner she fell asleep, the better.

.

_Maria POV_

"Can you believe there's another girl here?" Maria beamed at Newt, who was sitting next to her on her bed. After they left the med-hut they both went back to their room to spend some time together.

"Yeah it's pretty shucking great huh." Newt chuckled, delighted to see that Maria was so happy.

"It'll be like having a little sister." She enthused, unable to contain her excitement.

"Little? Maria that girl's like three inches taller than you, and you look the same age." Newt teased

"Oh shut it, I meant that she and I could be like best friends!"

Newt brought his hand to his chest and gasped, "But I thought I was you're best friend?"

"No, Minho's your best friend, I'm your really good friend." She clarified.

Newt paused. That was exactly what he had been hoping to talk to Maria about. He shifted on the bed so that he was looking directly at her, "Well about that…I was thinking…" He smiled bashfully at Maria.

"What were you thinking about?" Maria asked with hesitance. Was Newt about to tell her something she wouldn't like to here?

Newt cleared his throat. "I was sort of thinking that we aren't really good friends." He said shyly, "and that maybe we were something else."

Maria wasn't exactly following what Newt was getting at. "Something else? Like what?"

"Like…Boyfriend and girlfriend maybe." Newt said softly. He gave Maria a hopeful smile.

"Oh!"

At Newt's last statement, Maria's brain went into overdrive. On one hand she was ecstatic because Newt considered her to be his girlfriend, but on the other hand, for them to be dating was so official. It made everything seem so…permanent. Don't get her wrong, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she had incredibly strong feelings for Newt, but was she prepared to call Newt her boyfriend?

She thought that she was, and she certainly wanted to be, but then why was there always that nagging voice in the back of her head that told her she wasn't ready? No- the voice wasn't telling her she wasn't ready, it was telling her she was too immature. That voice can go shuck itself, Maria thought. How dare it say that she was immature? Considering the circumstances, she happened to have the perfect amount of maturity for someone in her situation. At least she thought so. She did think it was a little childish to be having a fake argument with a voice in her head. Maybe not so much childish, but more like crazy.

"I take it that your silence means I was wrong." Newt whispered with a hint of sadness in his voice. "I just made things awkward didn't I. Shuck I'm sorry Maria-"

"NO. Shuck, I mean yes, yes I think you're right." Maria stammered as she through her arms over his shoulders and brought him into a surprise hug. "Yes I would consider us to be a couple." She said breathlessly. The last thing she wanted was for Newt to think that she didn't have feelings for him.

Newt returned the hug, still a little surprised by Maria's sudden answer. "So that means…You're my girlfriend?" He asked with hesitance.

"Yep." She grinned and positioned herself so that she was facing Newt. "And that means you're my boyfriend?" She just asked to be cheeky, she already knew the answer.

Rather than actually say his answer, Newt decided it was best to just close the distance between him and Maria. He figured a kiss would be a more effective answer anyway.

"Good answer." Maria grinned after the kiss had been broken.

"It seemed appropriate for the situation." Newt shrugged.

"I agree." Maria nodded as she grabbed both sides of Newt's head and kissed him once more. This time with much more fervor. The kiss had the potential to go on for much longer, but it had to be cut short due to more pressing matters.

A shrill scream could be heard throughout the Glade. The shriek so high pitched that it could only belong to one other person: Lina.

"That was the girl wasn't it." Newt said monotonously, annoyed that they always had to be interrupted.

"Yep." Maria said as she was already half way out the door. Looks like she was going to have to visit them a little earlier than planned.

.

Lina was still screaming when Newt and Maria showed up. It was probably the loudest sound ever to come out of a human, because there was no explanation as to how her screams could be heard from all the way across the Glade.

"Thank god you guys are here, can you please shut her up." Minho yelled to Maria and Newt. He had two pillows pressed against his ears in attempt to blot out the horrific noise.

"Jesus Minho, what did you say to her that made her go off?" Newt asked bringing his hands to his ears.

"I didn't do anything! She just woke up from her nap and started screaming." Minho defended himself.

Maria turned to address Lina, whose eyes were shut and she was clutching the side of her head and it looked like she was digging her nails into her scalp. Maria rushed over to her side. "Lina! Lina what's wrong?"

"This. Isn't. A. Dream!" She shrieked, a mixture of shrieking and hyperventilating.

"Is that what you're screaming about. Sweet heart we've already been over this?" Minho yelled to Lina.

"This was supposed to be a dream. It's not a dream." She sobbed. Lina's shrieking eventually died down and was soon replaced by only hyperventilating. "I thought when I woke up it would be over…I'm not dreaming." She cried.

"No Greenie, you're not dreaming." Newt piped up, relieved that she was done screaming for now.

"This is real? Oh god this is real." Lina told herself in disbelief. Maria, Newt, and Minho all exchanged worried glances.

"Yeah Lina, this is real." Maria tried to approach the topic with as much sympathy as possible. "But you know it's not so bad here. Once you get past the initial shock of it all, everything will be fine."

"You just gotta stay positive! One day we'll get out of here and our lives will be normal." Newt assured Lina. "Probably." Maria shot him a look for including that last comment.

"Normal? Like with a family?" Lina gasped. "Oh god my parents are probably worrying about me?" Lina began to worry once more.

"Do you even remember if you have parents?" Minho asked, rolling his eyes.

Lina paused, "…No. Oh god I don't even remember if I have parents!" Once more, tears streaked Lina's cheeks.

Maria sat down next to Lina and patted her shoulder. "It's ok, cry it out if you have to." She soothed.

"Why are you encouraging her to keep crying? That's all she's been doing all shucking day. Don't you want her to stop?" Minho groaned.

Maria ignored him. She stayed next to Lina, comforting her as she cried. Lina didn't stop crying for another fifteen minutes. When Maria asked if she was ok, Lina didn't respond. They checked to see if she was fine only to discover that she wasn't talking because she had literally cried herself to sleep, which Newt didn't even know was possible. Maria crept away from her, careful to not wake her up.

"First nights always the hardest." Newt muttered under his breath.

Maria and Newt whispered quiet goodbyes to Minho, assuring that they would stop by in the morning. They left the med-hut with the hope that by morning, Lina will have calmed down.


	16. Lina learns about the glade

Lina POV

She had cried herself to sleep the night before, with one final hope that all of this was just one big messed up dream. What she had not anticipated though, was the fact that her actual dreams would be a million times more confusing than the dream she was living.

_DReeeaAAAAmmmmmMMMMIIiiinNNNNngggggGGG/FllllaaaaaAAAAAsSSSSSShhhBBaaaccCCCkkk_

_"Caroline? Are you paying attention?" Asked an official looking women sitting at the desk in front of her. Lina wasn't sure why, but she felt an extreme aggravation when looking at her._

_"Oh my god Ava, for the hundredth time that's not my name." Lina said exasperatedly, leaning back in her incredibly uncomfortable chair, which was almost as uncomfortable as the hideous white dress Lina was wearing._

_"That's Ms. Paige to you." Ava snapped, but quickly regained her composure in order to maintain control of the situation. "Caroline is your name, it has been ever since you arrived at our facilities for recruitment." Ava said with an obviously fake smile._

_"Yeah well it's not my real name. And since you won't tell me my real name, you know what name I prefer to go by."_

_"Yes. Yes. Well, Lina is not your official name. Caroline is. Why do all of the recruits think it's okay to change their names all of the sudden? First Isaac changes to Newt, then Albert wants to be called Alby. Why is everyone choosing petty little nicknames for themselves?" Ava said while shaking her head._

_"Probably because the names you give us totally suck."_

_Ava's stare turned hostile. "You watch your language young lady." She hissed. "The names of the recruits hold a very special significance. You are all named after humanities greatest-"_

_Lina didn't wait for her to be done talking. She had gone through this whole spiel numerous times before. "Yeah. Yeah, Scientists and Religious figures blah blah blah. I already get this lecture every day in training." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Just tell me why I'm here already, and make it quick. I left the curling iron on in my dorm." She said, gesturing to her half curled hair._

_"Well if you must know, the professors have filed several complaints about you. You have been very problematic as of lately." Ava said knowingly._

_"Oh please, name one thing I've done that's been problematic." Lina defended._

_Ava sighed and grabbed a think manila folder from a drawer in her desk. Lina's official file. In that folder had to be every bit of information there was to know on Lina. Including her real name, she thought mischievously._

_Ava leafed through the pages until she found what she was looking for, the list of complaints from her professors._

_"It says here that you told Professor McCall that he looks like a crank, and then proceeded to mock his outfit."_

_Lina opened her mouth to defend herself, but Ava kept on talking, going through the list of Lina's outbursts. _

_"You have skipped every training session with Professor Hale for the past four weeks. You called Doctor Stilinski an- and I quote: "an old ass bastard, who was probably possessed by a demon at one point or another", and, if that's not bad enough, every day you spend the entirety of Ms. Argent's and Mrs. Martin's seminars flirting with the male recruits as oppose to paying attention. You were also found outside of your dorm after curfew, and you found in a male recruits dorm. Which is a violation of our rules here at W.C.K.D" Ava finished._

_"Can you blame me? Some of those group A boys are fine as hell. A few of them invited me to hang out with them after training tomorrow." Lina said smugly. Honestly after hearing all of the complaints she couldn't help but feel a little proud of her criminal record, her reputation would never be higher once the recruits heard about her latest escapades._

_Ava slammed the folder down on the desk, startling Lina. "Young Lady, there will be absolutely no flirting, dating or, "hooking up" with any of the male recruits. Under no circumstances are you to develop emotional attachments with them. Do I make myself clear?" Ava said through clenched teeth._

_"Ok. Ok. Don't freak out Ava I'm sorry." Lina said hurriedly, before adorning a sly smile. "If you're worried about recruits dating, you shouldn't be looking at me, you should be going to Maria and Newt. They've been hanging out non-stop lately… probably making out as we speak." She shrugged. "So don't take all of your anger out on me." Lina finished. If you looked closely, you could see a hint of fear in Lina's usually mysterious black eyes when she caught the gaze of Ava's cold, unforgiving eyes. Unfortunately for Lina, Ava did see the fear in her expression, and it was her turn to wear the condescending smile._

_"Maria and Newt won't be a problem anymore, seeing as Newt is going into the box in no less than thirty minutes. But this meeting isn't about them, it's about you. I have plans for you Caroline, plans that won't work if you do not succeed in training. If you continue to behave recklessly in the facilities, and continue to fail at the basic education courses, I will have no choice but to remove you from the W.C.K.D program."_

_"But you can't send me outside." Lina cried with pleading eyes. For the first time during the conversation, Lina allowed her cool persona to falter. Would they just dump her outside? Where the Flare was ravaging the land, and cranks were roaming around freely? No, they wouldn't dare…right? All her life Lina was told by her professors that she was necessary, and that she would be an important asset to group B, where she would be sent to in three years. She was supposed to be special, but if Ava expelled her, that meant she was…expendable. _

_Ava gave Lina a cold smile. "You're not as tough as you think you are, Caroline. Without that little attitude of yours you'd be pathetic, worthless. Maybe if you put as much effort into science as you did with your frivolous popularity, then maybe you'd be worth something here at W.C.K.D. But No, you're nothing but a variable. In fact, you being here is a charity case. Why if it weren't for your idiotic mother-" Ava stopped herself before she revealed anything else to the girl. _

_Lina had pushed herself so far back into her chair she practically fell out of it. Ava was really scaring her now. She was dangerously close to crying, but instead of worrying about whether her makeup would start running, she was more worried about whether or not Ava would insult her further. "I'm sorry." She choked out._

_Once more Ava gave her a sickly sweet fake smile, as if she hadn't just snapped at her. "That's a good girl Caroline. I hope this will be our last meeting time meeting in these circumstances, otherwise things would get rather unpleasant for you. Now if you don't mind, I really must be going. I have to see to it that Mr. Newton makes it to his destination without any issues. Goodbye Caroline."_

_And with that, Ava promptly stood up, smoothing out her skirt and walked out of the office with perfect, robotic posture. Leaving Lina curled up in her chair sniveling like a child. She tried to steady her breathing, she knew she would have calm down in order for her scheme to work. As soon as Ava left the room however, Lina sprang into action. _

_She had anticipated that Ava would leave the folder on her desk. Ava grossly underestimated Lina, so she hadn't thought to put it away. In two strides Lina had swept over to her desk and began leafing through her files. What she saw surprised her._

_Her file was huge. There was an entire five pages dedicated entirely to all of her measurements. Right down to the length of her pinky finger! As if that wasn't creepy enough, she came across picture after picture of what had to be scans of her brain. She didn't even know when those scans could have been taken. There were pictures of her face as well as countless pages of information regarding Lina's personal behavior._

_ Lina would have to worry about how weird W.C.K.D was later. For now she was on a mission, a mission to find her real name. She would show Ava. She would find out everything W.C.K.D has been hiding from her._

_The ninth to last page in the file, Lina found what she was looking for. A page titled. "Enrollment form." It was dated fourteen years ago, and a few days after her birth. _

_She was so close, all she had to do was glance down, and read the name on the line. It was right there. Her real name was-_

"LINA!" Minho yelled from his bed, waking Lina up from what could have been the most important dream of her life. Lina was beyond mad. She was furious. If it didn't hurt every time she moved her ankle, she probably would have walked over to Minho and smother him with a pillow until he suffocated.

She grimaced at Minho. "Why the fuck did you wake me up?"

"You started crying in your sleep. Again." Minho crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her with obvious annoyance. Although the events of last night were a little fuzzy, Lina could vaguely remember being woken up several other times throughout the night due to her relentless crying. She shifted uncomfortably in her bed.

"Is this going to be a regular thing with you? Never mind don't answer that….Was it bad dreams or…?" Minho asked quietly, unsure if he was about to cross a line or not.

Lina nodded. "You could say that." She stared solemnly at the cast on her ankle, and tentatively tried to move her foot, which was still sore, swollen and now stiff from sleep. She preferred the physical pain from flexing her foot to the mental anguish she got when she recalled her dreams. Last night in her sleep she had been visited by haunting images of people with blurs for faces poking her with syringes, a dream that she had been running down an endless hallway, and a dream where she was back in the box. Only this time the walls closed in, making Lina incredibly claustrophobic. The last dream she had was the dream where she was talking to that old women. She had no idea what it meant, or whether or not she would have found out her real name or not. None of her dreams made any sense.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Minho cleared his throat. He was approaching the situation with so much sensitivity and concern it was kind of creeping her out.

"Yeah it was about-" Lina began, but something stopped her. Suddenly she heard an odd clicking sound in the back of her head and the next thing she knew, she blacked out. She saw nothing except darkness for what felt like ages. Then a blinding white light shone in her eyes and a voice spoke out to her. She was hoping it would be the sweet angelic voice of death, here to dilever her from the Hell she was living. Instead what she heard was an eerily familiar voice that would have sent chills up her spine if she were awake.

"I'm sorry Caroline, but I'm afraid that simulated dream gave you too many ideas. Normally we administer those dreams as variables for the subjects, but I don't believe you are capable of giving us the results we need with your dream responses. I think it would be best if you no longer remembered the dreams from last night, and you will be receiving no more throughout your time in the maze trials. You will also forget this conversation when you wake up." Said the muffled voice from inside her head. The voice was cold, monotonous and impersonal. It sounded more robotic than human.

Lina tried to talk back to the voice, but she couldn't speak. Her vision was black was black once more, but she couldn't tell whether or not she was awake or asleep.

Apparently she was asleep, because she definitely woke up when she was hit with a wave of ice cold water.

"What. The. Hell." She screamed as she sat up in bed. Her entire upper half was soaked, and she had already begun shivering.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know what to do. It was like you had a seizure or something. Your eyes rolled back and- and-" Minho panicked. Lina figured that he must have rushed over to her bedside and threw the water on her to wake her up. He was clutching an empty glass in his hand, and was breathing rather heavily.

"How long was I out?" Lina asked as she tried to wring some of the water out of her hair.

Minho gulped, "Like twenty minutes." He told her as he ran his hand through his hair. "What the shuck happened to you?"

"I don't know." Lina whimpered. "I was talking about…something, and then I woke up. I have no idea why I passed out." She cried. It was only then that she noticed the expression of pain on Minho's face. He had ran over to her to try to wake her up, ignoring the fact that his ankle was broken.

"Minho you're ankle!" Lina pointed out.

"What about it Princess. The fact that you broke it or…" He trailed off, returning to his normal level of sarcasm.

"No you idiot. You're standing on it. The doctor said you're not supposed to be up."

"First of all she's a med-jack. Not a shucking doctor. And secondly, you literally blacked out for twenty minutes. I thought you were dead. Should I have not gotten up to see if you were ok?" Minho yelled at her.

"I would have been fine! There wasn't any need to hit me with a bucket of water though." Lina rolled her eyes, getting progressively angrier. It was so annoying how Minho acted concerned and sympathetic, but then in a moment's notice reverted back to a cocky sarcastic asshole.

"Well excuse me for trying to wake you up. You know I thought you were dead for a minute."

Lina snorted, "Gee thanks. If I wasn't dead then I'll probably die in a couple minutes from hypothermia."

"Quit being dramatic. It was only a bit of water."

Lina disregarded him, and continued to complain. "I'm not being dramatic." She scoffed. "But if you were really concerned about me, you should know that my arms are about to go numb. Maria will probably have to amputate them now. Are you happy? Because of you I'm going to lose both of my arms."

"Well that's your fault for wearing a tank top." Minho grumbled. He had had enough of Lina's attitude. This was the thanks he was getting for trying to save her? He didn't have to take this klunk from her, he was leaving.

He stopped to glare at her one last time before limping off, only to see how badly she was shivering. She had wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, and her teeth were chattering violently. She looked like she really was about to catch hypothermia. Minho doubted she would, but still…she looked kind of pathetic. He looked around for a blanket to give her, but none of the beds had any, all of the blankets went to the gladers outside.

Minho couldn't believe he was about to do this. He sighed. "Are you cold?"

Lina sneered at him. "No shit Minho of course I'm freezing- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She gasped. Minho had stood up from his crouching position and had begun to unbutton his shirt, unrolling his sleeves in the process. In one swift motion he had taken off the shirt and threw it at Lina.

"Here." Minho said, his voice sounding a little defeated. Lina barely registered what just happened. She picked up the shirt and examined it. It was long sleeved and light blue, also cleaner than she had expected. She shrugged and put on the shirt. She briefly considered throwing the shirt back at him and denying his help, but she wasn't that stubborn. She was grateful to have something to cover her arms, despite the fact that the shirt was definitely too big on her.

"Um thanks." Lina said, she brought her gaze up to look at him, only just then seeing his exposed upper half. Lina hated to admit it, but she definitely appreciated Minho's incredibly toned physique.

"Somethin' catch your eye?" Minho raised his eyebrow cockily, lightly flexing his bicep. He had noticed Lina staring at him.

"Just admiring the view." Lina smirked. She was not going to allow Minho to have the one up on her. She could play the cocky, confident type just as well as he could.

Her response threw Minho off guard. He expected that she would blush and look away, but that wasn't the case. She just matched his stare with impossibly dark eyes. He paused, taking a moment to come up with the perfect witty retort, but before he had the chance to speak the door slammed open.

"GOOOD MORNING." Maria sang as she barged into the room, followed by Newt and Alby. Together they had brought up two plates of breakfast, as well as two pairs of crutches. They all seemed bright eyed and cheery, even Alby, which was pretty rare. Once all three of them had filed in they actually saw the situation in front of them.

"What the shuck happened while I was gone." Alby asked as he looked back and forth skeptically between the shirtless Minho, and the water soaked but more modestly dressed Lina.

Minho stared back at them with a blank expression "Do you guys want the long version or the short version?"

"Just tell us what happened."

Minho cleared his throat and began the story. "Well Lina woke me up like eight times last night due to her crying, the last time she wakes up she's all sad so I'm like, "Hey wanna tell me about your bad dreams?" And she's all like, "Sure." But then all of the sudden she totally blacks out for no reason, and for twenty minutes she's unconscious and I'm scared klunkless. I eventually wake her up by dumping a glass of water on her face, and she doesn't remember any of her dreams, which is really weird. Afterwards Lina's all cold and cranky. So I, being the gentleman I am, valiantly gave Lina my shirt for warmth, simultaneously gracing her with the presence of my amazing body, which Lina's basically drooling over by the way. Then you guys walk in. So to recap, Lina wakes up. Lina passes out. I throw water. Lina gets mad. I give shirt. Lina gets slightly less mad. Then you guys show up." Minho finished, out of breath from all of the talking.

After hearing the story Maria, Newt, and Alby exchange nervous glances. Maria with a blush on her face trying to avoid eye contact with the partially-nude Minho. She didn't quite believe the story though, unsure if he was just full of klunk, or if any of that really happened.

"Lina did you really pass out?" Maria asked, looking past Minho and over to Lina who was still in her bed shivering, and generally looking helpless. Lina nodded. That was all Maria needed to know in order for her to enter Med-jack mode. "Alby come with me, and we'll see if anything's wrong with her." Maria instructed. She and Alby rushed to Lina's bedside to question her and check to see if she was ok, while Minho stayed back with Newt.

"Brought you some crutches mate." Newt said cheerfully as he handed to Minho what couldn't have been more than a bunch of sticks tied together with rope to make a shape that awkwardly resembled a crutch. Minho managed to hobble about on them just fine though.

"So how you feeling?" Newt asked Minho, looking down at his splint. Newt had made a promise to make more of an effort to hang out with Minho, so showing some concern about him seemed like a good start.

"Well my ankle hurts, I got no sleep last night, and my arms are cold." Minho told Newt as he leaned forward on his crutches.

"I see. I also see that you stole the Give-the-girl-your-shirt move from me. Very original." Newt teased.

Minho rolled his eyes at his friends comment. "Shut up man, I felt bad for her. This is the first time she's stopped crying since she's gotten here, and then she shucking passed out on me. I don't know what this girl's deal is." He whispered so Lina wouldn't hear him.

Newt understood where Minho was coming from but he didn't stop teasing him. "So taking your shirt off and giving it to her will most certainly make her feel better. Excellent plan there mate. Really Steller work."

"Very funny you Shank, and for your information, I've found that girls seem to like it when I take my shirt off. Just ask Maria." Minho grinned.

"Hahaha, watch it Min." Newt said through clenched teeth. He would have pushed Minho over, but he'd rather not be responsible for any more of Minho's injuries.

Newt continued to talk to Minho for a couple more minutes, while Alby and Maria finished making sure that Lina wasn't prone to constantly passing out. Once both of them had eaten their breakfast, and they had gotten Lina to stand up with her crutches Alby announced the plan for the day.

"I'll be giving Greenie the tour." Alby announced. He then turned and glared sternly at Minho. "As for you, under no circumstances are you to go in the Maze. Sorry Minho but you're basically griever bait. So no running. Do you understand?"

"Crystal Sir." Minho said sarcastically. He tried to give Alby a mocking salute, but he ended up dropping one of his crutches and collapsing awkwardly to the ground. Needless to say he wasn't very happy that the rest of the group laughed at him.

"Shuck it, I'm leaving now. If you need me, and I know you won't, I'll be off to go grab another shirt." Minho muttered as he made his way out the door. Maria only briefly considered going to help him when she heard the sound of what could only be Minho falling down a flight of stairs. She took Minho's vivacious curses as a sign that he was ok though.

Ignoring Minho's dramatic outburst, Alby continued discussing the day's schedule. "Also don't forget we have the bonfire tonight." He said to Newt and Maria.

Maria perked up, "Awesome! The last bonfire I went to I jumped off a tree and didn't remember anything." Lina stared at her in horror. Were all bonfires like that? She wondered.

"This time you won't be drinking you bloody light weight." Newt chuckled. There was a little sadness in his expression when he remembered how Maria had almost killed herself when she fell out of that tree.

"Guys stop scaring the Green bean." Alby reprimanded. "Lina come with me now, I'm taking you on the tour." Alby said as he led a terrified Lina out the door and carefully aided her in coming down the steps. Maria and Newt followed them downstairs and saw them off on their tour, but stayed behind in the Med-hut. After all Maria did have to work today because Alby had given Clint and Jeff the day off on account of them both no longer being bed-ridden.

Maria POV.

Tonight's bonfire couldn't come soon enough. There was only so much time one person could spend in the Med-hut alone before they inevitably lost their mind. Newt had to leave in order to document the supplies brought up in the box yesterday, leaving Maria all by herself.

It was a slow day as far as patients went. Only one patient showed up, a stocky builder named Ernie, and all he needed was a bandage. He was in and out in under a minute. Maria was left to her own devices as she tried to entertain herself in anyway. She mopped up and cleaned the entire second floor to the Med-hut. She even reorganized all of the medicine by the colors of the bottles. And then again in alphabetical order.

By the time it was noon and she was supposed to go on her lunch break in a few minutes, she had already decided that she would be leaving work early. In hind sight, it was probably a bad decision because there wouldn't be any med-jacks on duty, but Maria knew there wasn't going to be any real emergencies.

Alby would have a fit if he knew that she was abandoning her post, but he was too busy giving the tour at the moment. Maria wondered how that was going, knowing Lina she had probably started crying again. She was also probably complaining about how uncomfortable her crutches were, or just generally complaining. Maria hoped that Lina's attitude was just a product of shock and that it would eventually wear off. She sincerely doubted that though. That girl was definitely a diva.

Maria was so excited that there was finally another girl in the Glade, but by the same token, it was a kind of disheartening. Being the only girl meant that Maria was treated differently. Like when Frypan gave her extra food, or when Clint let her show up late to work. She liked the special treatment, even though she would never admit it. Lina was now going to get all of the attention now. Maria was like the older sibling after a new baby had been born, forgettable. It didn't help that this girl was also way prettier than her. Woah hold up, Maria thought. She was beginning to sound like a crazy jealous girl.

She had no idea if she was the jealous type or not, technically Lina was the only ever girl she could remember meeting, so Maria had no idea if the feelings she felt toward her were in fact jealousy. Sure she felt a little envious of her perfect, freckle free, skin. And her silky straight dark hair, but that didn't mean she was jealous right? Right?

Maria sighed. Ok maybe she was a little jealous, but could you blame her. Maria saw the way all the gladers looked at Lina when she first showed up, it was the same way they used to look at her. She knew that the guys would be all over her. She was naïve pretty girl, and they were hormonal teenage boys, of course they would flirt with her. Especially at the bonfire tonight. If Lina drank too much, some jerk would probably take advantage of her, so Maria could absolutely not allow that to happen. Oh no there was no way she would allow another Len situation ensue.

Speaking of Len, Maria hadn't seen him since the day he tried to force himself on her. Alby had told her that Len was sentenced to a full month in the slammer, with more punishments to follow. Good, thought Maria. That bastard could rot in prison for the rest of his life for all Maria cared.

It was at that moment that Maria realized that she had wandered out of the Med-hut and into the clearing. She must have been really lost in thought to not realize how far she had walked. Luckily her mind had led her not to far from the kitchens. It actually was lunch time, so that made it the perfect time to go pester Frypan for some food.

The dining area was usually pretty empty at lunch time since everybody was busy working. The gladers would stop by to grab a meal, but they wouldn't have time to sit and eat it at one of the tables. Currently the only people Maria could see at the dining area was a Frypan and some other cooks, a few stray sloppers, and surprisingly Minho was sitting down at a table on the outskirts of the pavilion. Maria quickly grabbed a bit of fruit from Frypan and headed over to go talk to Minho who, to Maria's delight and dismay, had put on another shirt.

"Hey." She greeted as she set herself across from him.

"Hey." Minho said without looking up. He was staring dejectedly at the wilted salad in front of him.

"Is everything ok?" She asked, noticing his sad behavior.

Minho angrily stabbed his fork at a piece of lettuce. "Maria how long am I going to have this splint on?" He spat.

"About a month." Maria gave him a pained smile, trying to deter his wrongly channeled anger.

He stuck his fork down into the table and groaned, "That's a whole month I won't be in the maze. A whole month I could be using to find a way out."

Before Minho could do any more damage with the fork Maria gingerly took the fork his grasp. "Think of it as a vacation or something. Aren't you happy you're not running right now?"

Minho glared at her. "Being a runner isn't a burden Maria, it's an honor. I actually want to find a way out of this place one day, and I'm not helping anyone if I'm sitting around on my ass all day.

"But Minho you've already done so much. You've ran that maze more than a hundred times by now. And like you said, it keeps changing, so maybe in a month the exit will have shown up." She said hopefully.

"That's some wishful thinking. But I doubt it. We're not gonna find klunk with only one runner out in the maze for a month."

"Hey, you never know. Maybe someone else will step up and become a runner."

"Oh yeah, like who."

Maria shrugged, "Well Lina seemed pretty eager to run into the maze." She chuckled.

"The green bean? There's no shucking way she'll be a runner. She'll probably start crying in there and attract every griever within a five mile radius." Minho scoffed.

"I don't know about that." Maria pursed her lips. "But did you see how fast she ran yesterday. The greenie was like a shucking gazelle. She's probably faster than you." She smirked.

Minho tried to fight back the smile that appeared on his face. "Not a chance. I've been running that maze for three years, aint no shank here that can out run me." He said with the utmost of confidence.

"When you two get your splints off, we can have a race. My moneys on the Greenie though." Maria teased.

"Good to know I have your support. First you take my best friend, then you take my self-esteem. Where does it end with you girlie?"

Maria blushed. "I don't think me dating Newt counts as taking him from you…" She said. "He's capable of having a best friend and a girlfriend."

"You should tell him that."

Maria sighed and popped a couple of raspberries into her mouth. "Are you mad at me for "taking" Newt from you?"

"Kind of, but I know it's not really your fault. You've got the one thing I could never give Newt." Minho said jokingly.

"And what is that?" Maria rolled her eyes, she knew she would regret asking.

Minho paused for dramatic effect. "A pair of tits."

Maria fake glared at him as she tried to suppress her laughing. "You are possible the most annoying human being in the world."

"So I've heard." He laughed.

Once the laughter died down and they spent a few more minutes talking about random frivolous things, mainly, the new green bean.

"Do you think she's pretty?" Maria asked out of the blue. Momentarily stumping Minho.

"Well she's only the second girl I've ever met. So yeah I guess she's pretty. My standards are pretty low at this point though. Maybe if the creators send a few dozen more chicks up I'll develop a type. But for now if you're a girl, chances are your pretty to me. Minho reasoned.

"Aww you think I'm pretty." Maria said with a teasing tone.

"I guess. Don't let that go to your head though. I don't need any competition for the Who's-the-most-conceited-person-at-the-glade award."

"So you admit you're conceited?"

"Shuck yeah I am."

.

After Lunch, Minho headed over to the Map room to try and prove that he could be of some use while he was injured. Alone, Maria occupied herself for the rest of the day by playing with Stink. (She made sure that they were far away from the gardens so Zart wouldn't start yelling at her again). She did this for about an hour or two before she decided to start getting ready for the bonfire.

She had just walked into her room where she saw Newt, who must have just gotten off of work.

"Hey love." Newt greeted her. He was holding a box in his hands, but Maria wasn't sure what it contained.

"Heya Newt." Maria beamed back at him. "Whatcha got their?" She asked. Newt looked sadly down at the box then back at her.

"I'm moving out." Newt murmured. The box in his hands was the same box that Maria had rooted through that night so many weeks ago. It was the box of Newt's belongings.

Maria stepped closer to Newt with a confused expression. "Why on earth are you moving out?"

Taking a deep breath, Newt told her what the deal was. "You and Lina are going to room together since you're both girls. I'll be moving to Minho's room. This was all Alby's idea by the way. Do you think I wanted to leave?"

"But this means we'll no longer be roommates." Maria complained.

Newt sighed and ran a hand though his hair. Which was kind of a stupid move because it caused him to lose his grip on the box and allow its contents to tumble to the floor. Real smooth Newt.

Maria crouched down to help Newt pick up the things he dropped. She really didn't want Newt to switch rooms, but it was too late now. She couldn't argue with Alby once he had already made up his mind.

Once everything had been picked up they stood back up again. An awkward silence hung in the air.

"So do you have everything?" Maria asked softly as she placed the last couple of fallen objects in the box.

"Not quite everything." Newt told her. He turned his head and nodded in the direction of the bed. Where Newt had placed Isaac the teddy bear on top of the pillow.

Maria grinned, "You're giving him to me?"

Newt shrugged. "You seem to like him more than I do. Think of it as my departing gift." He grinned back at her. Maria raised an eyebrow at Newt.

"You're only going next door, don't act like your leaving forever-"

"Quiet Maria I'm trying to be romantic."

Maria rolled her eyes. "My sweet Newt, when will we meet again my love?" She said theatrically.

"I don't know my darling. Remember me fondly once I am gone." He said while exaggerating his British accent.

"OH MY GOD WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP." Said a muffled voice that belonged to Gally from the floor above them. Maria and Newt muttered inaudible apologies but quickly broke out in fits of giggling. The two of them must have thought they were really shucking funny.

"Seriously love I gotta go." Newt said as he gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I'll walk over to the bonfire with you though. Meet me outside in twenty minutes." Newt called behind him as he walked out the door.

Not five minutes later she heard a knock on the door. She thought it was Newt again, unable to stay away from her. Instead opening the door put her face to face with her new roommate, Lina.

"So this is my room." Lina inspected as she hobbled into the room on her crutches.

"Our room actually." Maria corrected. Lina looked disdainfully at the lone bed then back at Maria.

"Well I'm injured so I'll be taking the bed." Lina announced. Maria could only nod in agreement. She didn't want to argue with her and get on her bad side. It appeared as if Lina was going to start listing off some more commands when another knock at the door interrupted her.

"Please open the door before my arms fall off." Came Chuck's prepubescent little voice. Maria opened the door to see the small twelve year old carrying two crates filled to the brim with the supplies that were sent up with Lina. Clearly he was struggling as he walked into the room on shaky legs. Chuck dropped the crates in the middle of the room and basically collapsed.

"Thanks Chuck." Lina called to him as he trudged out the door. She turned back to Maria, and saw her skeptical glare. "What he offered to help. I didn't force him to carry my things." Lina defended herself.

"Alright then." Maria just shook her head and started to help Lina unpack her things.

Maria had only gotten a backpack full of clothing and supplies, so she thought it was super unfair that Lina got two crates worth of stuff.

"Why did they send you up with so many clothes?" Maria asked bewildered as she came across article after article of clothing. She had gotten half way through the first crate, and hadn't even began to uncover all of the things she was sent up with.

Lina opened the second crate, which was only slightly smaller than the first. Inside was about ten pairs of shoes. Fancy toiletries, and even more clothes. Maria's jaw dropped to the floor at the spread in front of her.

"What's wrong?" Lina asked when she noticed that Maria looked like she was close to having a meltdown.

"I only got a back pack full of klunk. You get a whole wardrobe sent with you." Maria said, trying to hide her bitter tone. Lina smiled sympathetically at her.

"Oh. Well you can borrow some of my clothes." She offered, gesturing to the crates in front of her. "We're roommates now so we can share."

"Really? You're ok with that." Maria asked. For some reason Lina didn't strike her as the sharing type.

Lina let out a laugh "Go for it. Apparently there's a party tonight or something, so we can help each other choose what to wear." She squealed, a new found excitement in her eyes. Maria was taken aback, after a whole month of being surrounded by guys being in the presence of Lina was like being hit by a wave of girliness. She wasn't complaining though, this was exactly what she had hoped having another girl around would be like.

Diving into the crates, Lina strategically picked out what both of them were going to wear tonight. She may not remember much, but she certainly remembered how to pick out cute outfits. Rooting though clothes seemed to make Lina forget how confused and stressed out she had been. It was weird how therapeutic outfits were to her.

"Put this on!" Lina squealed as she shoved a handful of clothing into Maria's arms. Maria hurried behind the decency curtain and got to undressing.

"How do I look?" Maria asked as she pulled the curtain back. Lina had given her a casual white dress with a flowy skirt, and a cropped denim jacket. The dress was incredibly impractical as far as wearing it around the glade was concerned. Normally people dressed in whatever ratty clothing that they didn't mind if it got dirty. Seeing semi-decent clothing felt refreshing to Maria.

"EEEE you look so cute! Here put these on! I hope you're my size." Lina handed her a pair of sandals. Maria tried them on to see that they were just a little too big on her. She adjusted the straps until they were for the most part comfortable. Lina beamed when she looked at the outfit she had picked out on Maria. The dress probably looked better on her anyway.

Lina receded back behind the curtain to change with her arms full of different clothes. She decided that she would need to wear something on the looser side in order to accommodate her ankle. She tried on several diffent dresses and maxi skirts, being sure to ask for Maria's opinion on everything, before they finally agreed on a black sleeveless romper with a modest neckline. Pairing in with a low rise black sneaker.

"Maria please let me do something with your hair." Lina begged. Maria knew that she didn't mean to sound rude, that was just the way Lina talked. Maria was a little worried that Lina wouldn't be so kind when she saw the state that her hair was currently in.

Maria blushed as she ran her hand down her knotted messy braid. "Well that would be kind of difficult considering I don't have a hairbrush." She started

Lina stopped her. "Um the creators gave me like five hair brushes." She said like it was no big deal, as she pulled the brushes out of the crate. Maria didn't want to scream favoritism, but why the hell did she have to go through a month of tangled hair hell, while the green bean over here was busy hogging all of the hair brushes. She grew to resent the creators a little bit more at that moment.

After thirty days of neglecting the existence of her hair, Maria hadn't even realized how much it would hurt when a comb finally ran through her curls. She bit her tongue as Lina forced knot after knot out of her hair. All the while Lina was mouthing countless sorries because she could almost feel the pain she was causing Maria. After many agonizing minutes, her hair could finally be described as semi-decent and no longer terrible.

"I'm in love with the color of your hair." Lina cooed as she ran her fingers through Maria's wavy hair. Lina described the color as fiery and edgy, but Maria chose a more appropriate description, such as the color of a tomato that had been left out to rot in the sun for a couple of weeks.

"Oh stop being so humble. It's cute, honestly." Lina assured her. She then effortlessly styled Maria's hair into a half crown braid in under five minutes. The only explanation for that had to be that this girl was a hair stylist or something similar before she was sent to the glade.

Lina chose to wear her hair down since it was already naturally straight. She had been so pleasantly distracted by the little make over session, that she had forgotten every stressor in her life. The last twenty or so minutes had been the most fun she had had since showing up at the Glade. It almost made her think that being a glader wouldn't be so bad.

Maria was busy admiring her newly styled hair in the mirror that the creators gave Lina. (They gave her a mirror too that is literally so not fair.) That she hadn't even noticed the persistent knocking at the door.

"Who is it?" Lina said while picking her crutches up and hopping over to the door. Opening it to see Newt leaning confidently against the door frame, wearing a faded brown Henley and jeans.

"Maria you were supposed to- Oh. Uhh hey Lina." Newt cleared his throat. Maria turned away from the mirror suddenly. She had forgotten she was supposed to meet up with him to go to the bonfire.

"Oh shuck I'm so sorry Newt I completely forgot. You see Lina and I were…clothes…and hair….and yeah…" Maria chuckled awkwardly at her lame excuse.

"Wow Maria. You look fantastic!" Newt grinned when he saw her. There was something about seeing her in a dress that was just so…wow! He wasn't even mad at her for forgetting to meet up with him. Newt, like the gentleman he was, placed his hand out for Maria to hold. "Shall we?" Newt asked gesturing for them to leave.

"Yeah let's go!" Maria said walking out the door. "You coming Lina?" She asked behind her. Lina nodded and began stumble about on her crutches. She sure was going to need a lot more practice using them.

.

By the time they had arrived at the bonfire, Newt had managed to wrap his arm around Maria's waist sometime during the walk there. What had gotten into Newt that had made him so particularly romantic today? She wondered.

Most of the gladers had just begun arriving at the bonfire, which had yet to be lit. A couple of the guys had already begun wrestling with each other. As for the keeper, some of the keepers had shown up early to set up the refreshments.

"Hey Newt. Maria. Over here." Called Gally's voice from the edge of the forest. At his feet were the several boxes of mason jars filled with ale. "Help me carry this stuff over to the others." Gally instructed. Newt reluctantly removed his hand from Maria's waist to pick up two of the boxes, while Maria grabbed another.

"When and how do you make this klunk Gally?" Maria asked as she lifted the crate. Already the smell of the liquid made her want to double over and vomit.

"I'm a man of many talents." Gally replied. There wasn't a chance that he was going to give over the recipe to how he made his infamous beverage. Maria just looked suspiciously at the sloshing amber jars. Gally not answering the question only confirmed Maria's suspicions that Gally's piss was definitely a part of the recipe.

The three of them set down the moon shine and almost immediately Gladers swarmed over to grab a jar. Why the gladers were so eager to drink the foulest substance on earth, Maria had no idea. Among the crowd of soon-to-be-drunk boys Maria didn't see Lina. She thought about how it was kind of shitty of her to have just left her by herself when she went to help Gally. Maria looked around the party for Lina, with no luck.

"Do you see Lina anywhere?" Maria asked Newt. Newt took a small swig of moon shine before he pointed out the girl to her.

"My guess is that she's the one surrounded by the crowd of guys." Newt smirked. Maria turned to see what Newt was talking about.

In the five minutes she had been gone, Lina managed to find herself in the middle of a crowd of admirers. She was seated on a log in order to take some of the tension off of her foot, but it may as well have been a throne judging by how regal Lina looked as the center of attention.

Maria was able to overhear a couple of the guys who were trying to get Lina's attention.

"Hey Lina you wanna hang out after this?" A desperate boy yelled to her.

"No don't go with him he's lame, you should stay with me instead?"

"Lina do you wanna hear about that time I wrestled a griever to the ground?" A boy called in a pathetic attempt to try and impress her. Lina rolled her eyes at all of the guys swarming her, but she was clearly loving the attention.

"Boys please. There's plenty of me to go around." She said innocently to the crowd. Sending the boys into another frenzy of calling to her.

"Unbelievable." Newt muttered, watching most of the guys make complete fools of themselves in front of Lina. Newt shook his head and took another sip from his drink.

"I don't remember having my own fan club." Maria pouted. How come the guys were swarming Lina, but they hadn't swarmed her, the first girl in the whole shucking Glade. "I'm a little insulted right now."

"No way. If you had a bunch of guys flirting with you, I would personally beat up every single one of those shanks for thinking they even had a chance with you." Newt told her as he leaned down to kiss her cheek.

Maria raised an eyebrow at him, "Intresting. Does that make you the jealous type Newt?"

Newt grinned. "All I'm saying is that if I caught one of these shanks making eyes at you, I would break there bloody legs."

Maria laughed. "I have to say, I'm finding this protective side of you extremely attractive."

"Well I find everything about you extremely attractive." Newt smirked.

Where had Newt gotten all of this confidence from? It certainly wasn't there a couple days ago. She certainly wasn't going to question it. Not to say that she didn't love the cute, shy Newt, because she definitely did. All she was saying was that there was nothing wrong with a little confidence.

.

The rest of the bonfire went swimmingly. Maria didn't get drunk off her ass, Lina got _completely _drunk off her ass, and everybody else just got plain drunk off their asses (with the exception of a few of the keepers, Newt being one of them.)

Some highlights of the party was the epic dance off between Winston and Jeff (Jeff won), Zart downing thirteen shots of moon shine, Chuck throwing both of his shoes into the fire (He wasn't even drunk. Just really stupid), but the most recent highlight was probably Minho's melt down. Maria hadn't stuck around to hear the whole thing, but she saw him down his eighth shot, and that was when he reached his limit. Pretty soon she heard Minho screaming about how great he was, ripping his shirt off and throwing it into the fire, and finally declaring that he could fight every single glader, all while waving his crutches around like swords. He was going to have a crazy bad hangover in the morning.

Oh how Maria loved seeing the side effects of alcohol effect other people. She found it was much more fun to observe her drunk friends when she was sober.

She was having a great time until she had to drag Lina away from a group of guys. Let's just say they were getting way too err-grabby with Lina, and if they had gone one step farther Maria slap those shanks into the Maze.

"Let's get you back to the room." Maria comforted Lina, who was just then turning green. In hindsight she probably should have stopped her from having that third drink.

Maria got Newt to help carry Lina back to the room, and yes they literally had to carry her because apparently stumbling while drunk was too hard on her ankle.

"Sleep tight." Newt mumbled as he dumped Lina onto the bed. She was already out like a light. Maria almost felt sorry for her when she thought about how much she would regret drinking in the morning. Maria tried not to think about it as she followed Newt out of the room and back outside.

Rather than make their way back to the bonfire, Newt grabbed Maria's arms and led her to the back of the homestead, away from everyone else.

"I figured we could use some alone time." Newt grinned. He leaned down to place a quick kiss on her lips. He pulled away in confusion when Maria hadn't immediately kissed back.

"Is everything ok?" Newt asked, a ghost of panic in his voice.

"Yeah… I just don't know what we're gonna do with this greenie." Maria sighed as she rested her head on Newt's shoulder. In response Newt snaked his arm around Maria's waist and pressed a gentle kiss of her temple.

Maria grinned "Thanks for that but that wasn't really an answer." She could feel Newt's lips form a smirk on her forehead.

"Don't worry so much love. Once that girl gets the hang of things around here I'm sure she'll be fine." Newt assured Maria. But she wasn't so sure.

"I just don't remember being as upset as she was. Like yeah I was pissed, but I certainly didn't cry that much." Maria shook her head.

Newt shrugged, "It's not unusual for a Greenie to cry a lot. Hell when Chuck got here I think he didn't stop crying for six days." Newt chuckled. Feeling daring and romantic, he made a move in attempt to kiss her forehead again, but Maria jerked her head away suddenly. She continued to worry.

"Yeah but what if this girl is like, seriously not okay. I mean she blacked out earlier today for shuck sake."

Newt threw his head back and groaned. "Oh my shucking god Maria you worry way too much." He whined.

Maria continued to question him, "Do you think she'll try to run into the maze again? What if she gets hurt?"

"Maria I swear if you don't calm down-"

"Maybe I shouldn't have let her drink tonight." Maria barely got the words out before Newt crashed his lips onto hers. He definitely had a way of shutting her up.

Maria pulled away. "Newt you can't just make out with me every time you want me to be quiet."

"You've been too uptight lately Love. You're not yourself." Newt whispered as he traced his thumb down her cheek. "Just leave the worrying to Alby."

"Yeah but-"

"Love. Would you rather be worrying about the Greenie, or would rather share a kiss with me." Newt laughed.

Newt was slowly leaning in closer and closer to Maria. He had a stupidly loveable grin on his face as if to say, "You know you want me." Oh shuck it, Maria thought, she couldn't say no to that stupid face. She grabbed the back of Newt's head and guided him back to her lips.

It started out unsteady and frantic, and remained that way for a minute or two, but slowly it turned to a more evenly paced kiss. Newt, wanting to take a step up from slow, sensual kisses, took immediate control as he rested his hands on Maria's waist and pulled her in closer to him. Maria understood what Newt was trying to accomplish and held both sides of his face, the two of them trying to get as close as anatomically possible.

They had no idea how the kiss had become so heavy so quickly. One minute it was just an average kiss on the lips, and the next minute Newt had Maria pressed against the back wall of the homestead and attacking her lips with his own. Maria wasn't about to let Newt have total control though. She had a trick or two up her sleeve.

She surprised Newt when she traced his bottom lip with her tongue, asking for permission to enter. Newt instinctively obliged. The kiss had turned into a battle for dominance now, and Maria was winning.

Not to be outdone, Newt too charge once more. Maria let out a whimper when Newt receded his lips from hers. With his hands gripping both sides of her cheeks he peppered a few small kisses around her face before eventually trailing down to her jaw, then her neck, then her collarbone.

Maria could only moan as Newt nipped and kissed her skin. He brought his lips to her shoulders, simultaneously sliding off her jacket.

She shivered as the cold air hit her bare arms, and took to pressing into Newt for warmth. Maria guided his lips back away from the crook of her neck and into steamy lip lock. Maria didn't even realize that she had brought her hands to rest on Newt's abdomen as the kiss became more and more ferocious. She grabbed the hem of the shirt and yanked it upwards, briefly breaking the kiss. Once Newt's shirt had been discarded, Newt reattached his lips to Maria's collarbone, and in a daring move, he had begun to trace the neckline of Maria's dress with his lips. All the while Maria's hand were frantically alternating between pressing against Newt's bare chest, and running them through Newt's hair.

He was driving her crazy. Each kiss sending a pleasurable heat though her body, reducing her to a moaning mess. She knew she was going to have to stop him before they lost control completely.

"Newt… We have to…have to stop." Maria murmured into the Newt's ear. It was hard to bring herself to say those words. She never wanted this moment to stop, she wanted to keep going further and further until-. Maria had to stop herself. Her stupid teen girl hormones were working themselves into a lather.

With one passionate kiss on her lips, Newt withdrew himself. That had gone waaaay farther than intended. He had stopped himself just in the nick of time, before he was sure he would enter the point of no return.

"Yeah…Yeah you're right…Bloody hell Maria you are so beautiful." Newt panted as he pulled his head back to look at her. Her lips were red and puffy, and Newt knew his were the same. The glow of the moonlight illuminated Maria in such a way that made her hair look like a fiery halo on her angelic face. And in the dim lighting Newt could just vaguely see hints of light bruises on her collarbone that would surely darken by morning. Good. Newt thought, it was about time he left his mark on her after what she had to him.

Maria laced her fingers into his and smiled, glad that the darkness concealed her red face. Her breathing was still jagged, but her heart was beginning to settle down now.

They walked hand in hand back to their rooms, careful not to wake up any of the gladers who had decided to head to bed, although there was still a decent amount of guys still at the Bonfire.

"Goodnight Love." Newt whispered as he placed an innocent kiss on her cheek.

"Goodnight Newt." Maria grinned and rather brought Newt in for a quick peck on the lips, which was still pretty innocent compared to what they had just done. "It sucks that we're no longer roommates." She slumped her shoulders.

"Don't worry love, you'll still be seeing plenty of me." He smiled cheekily. They bided goodbyes one last time before disappearing behind their respected doors. Maria still grinning, unable to get the events of the night out of her head.

She tiptoed to the back of the room and grabbed the lone-sleeping bag in the corner. Lina didn't look like she would wake up anytime soon, so Maria could safely change into pajamas without having to worry about flashing Lina.

Maria looked forlornly at the comfortable bed Lina was sleeping on. Oh well, Maria thought as she crawled into the sleeping bag. It looks like she would have to sleep on the floor tonight.

**AN: sorry that chapter took forever guys. I had crazy bad writers block, and at the same time i couldn't stop binge watching this show the 100. So to make up for the long wait I wrote an extra long chapter with plenty of fluff at the end! tell me what you guys think of this chapter! I appreciate every review, favorite, and follow so much you guys are the best. Let me know if theres anything i should write about in the next chapter or anything you want me to focus on, and also tell me what you think of Lina! #Newiaforlyfe. **


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